Naruto no Kyuubi
by Anthurak The Chaos Lord
Summary: What if things were different? What if Naruto had learned a different jutsu from the scroll? What if he had a different team? What if he had a different sensei? What if he had gotten a bit more use of Kyuubi's power? NaruHina DISCONTINUED UP FOR ADOPTION
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

"Luke, join me"-Normal speaking

'_No! You killed my father!'_-Normal thought

"**That I did. And it was FUN!"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**Sweatdrop"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter I**

**Birth of A Demon**

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"You're a fool Iruka!" Mizuki spat as he stood in front of the wounded chunin. "A demon like Naruto is just going to use that scrolls power to destroy the village! How could you ever even think he was anything close to human you fool?!"

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A short distance away, Naruto was shivering in fear.

'_I have to save Iruka-sensei! But how? I haven't even mastered that jutsu from the scroll!'_

Naruto thought back for a moment, how everything made since now. The glares. The taunts and insults. The mobs. The assassination attempts. He was the Kyuubi. A demon. Something that would destroy them without a second thought. And yet, If he was a demon, why did he want to protect his sensei? Why did he like people like the Sandaime and Teuchi and his daughter, and Hinata? Why? He was the Kyuubi! He shouldn't feel things like this, should he? Then it dawned on him. He wasn't just the Kyuubi! He was also Naruto Uzamaki! He had existed before the Kyuubi was sealed in him! He may be a demon, but he was also a person! It was then that something else dawned on him. All those times he had been injured. All the times he was beaten, stabbed and stepped on, he had healed faster then any human. Kyuubi was part of him! It's power flowed through him. So, why not **use** that power?!

'_I have to save Iruka-sensei! I may be the Kyuubi, but I'm Naruto Uzamaki too!'_

Making a ram seal, Naruto cried out in his head to every corner of his mind.

'_Alright Kyuubi! I know you're in there! Give me your power!'_

Not one second had he thought those yells, a voice deeper then the sea itself sounded though his head.

'_**AS YOU WISH, WARDEN'**_

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"Alright Iruka, I'll just end your suffering and go get that scroll myself!" Mizuki yelled as he threw the fuma shuriken at the defenseless chunin.

As the weapon hurdled towards him, Iruka closed his eyes.

'_Naruto, I'm so sorry'_

CLANG!

With a deafening report, the shuriken was split apart into four pieces. Each slamming into nearby trees.

Iruka opened his eyes to see his who his savior was.

'_Naruto!'_

But it wasn't the Naruto he knew. His hair was darker, more unruly. His fingernails were now claws that must have been diamond hard if they had split the shuriken so easily. His canines were now fangs. The scar-like birthmarks on his cheeks were deeper, more defined, like whiskers. His eyes, once as blue as the sky itself, were now as red as blood and his pupils were slited, like a fox. And around him swirled an aura of bright crimson chakra that both Chunin knew all too well.

"Ha! So the demon finally shows his face! Now I can finally finish what Yondaime started!" Mizuki yelled arrogantly.

Iruka was speechless. Was the Kyuubi breaking free of it's prison? And what was going to happen to Naruto? But what shocked him most was what happened next.

"I may be a demon," Naruto said in low voice that was now much deeper. "But, I'll never let you hurt my friends!"

"Ha, what can you do? Your just a genin!"

Naruto smirked darkly.

"That maybe, but, I'm also a demon!" He said as he brought his hand out in front of him as chakra began swirling around it. "A demon that's learned the jutsu of the greatest Hokage who ever lived!" he yelled as a crimson maelstrom of chakra formed in his hand.

Mizuki stared in shock at what was in Naruto's hand.

"Th-Thats the…"

"Yes" Naruto said darkly as he brought his hand back and charged Mizuki.

Too shocked to move, Mizuki stood there, staring at the boy, wondering how this was possible, until it was too late.

"**RASENGAN" **Naruto yelled as he slammed the spinning orb of demon chakra into the chunin. Iruka watched in awe and almost fear as the orb entered the mans body, and then, Naruto said something that had to be nothing more then a whisper

"Boom"

Mizuki literally exploded. Charred chunks of flesh and blood flew everywhere, splattering on the trees. Iruka lowered the hand he was using to shield his eyes as he looked at his savior. Naruto stood, hunched over, covered head to toe, in Mizuki's blood.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" he shakily asked.

Naruto turned around and smiled at his sensei. It wasn't a normal smile though, Iruka noted. It was a small smile, not like the normal, happy-go-stupid smile that he normally wore. Nor was it the extremely rare smile that Iruka had been one of the few people to see. This was a sad smile. One not unlike the one the Sandaime wore when he looked at Naruto sometimes.

"How was that Iruka-sensei"

Iruka stared at him for a few seconds, then smiled back.

"That was great, Naruto"

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In his office, the Sandaime Hokage looked down into his scrying ball at the scene in the forest. He then looked to the ANBU stationed by the door.

"Call off the search. The scroll is safe"

"Hai, Hokage-sama" the ANBU said as she shunsined away.

Alone in his office Sarutobi gazed back into the orb to see Iruka giving Naruto his headband saying that he had passed. This brought a sad smile to his face.

'_Minato, Kushina, I'm so sorry'_

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	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything shown or portrayed here other then the story idea

Naruto-Normal speaking

'_Hinata'_-Normal thought

"**Emo"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**melon"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter II**

**Alteration**

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Naruto lay in his bed, thoughts running through his head. After giving Naruto his headband, Iruka had taken him and the scroll to the Hokage, who had wanted to talk to him.

_Flashback_

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Naruto sat in the Hokage's office in front of a large oak desk behind which sat the Hokage himself. Someone Naruto, oddly enough, wasn't completely pissed off at.

"Naruto…I'm sorry, for not telling you about it. I hoped that…that it would allow you to lead a normal life. I'm…I'm sorry for being so naïve about the villagers" Sarutobi said in a sad tone.

"Ne. That's okay Oji-san. I understand why you couldn't" Naruto replied.

"Thank you, Naruto. But there is something you need to know"

"Huh?"

"I watched the entire battle through my scrying crystal, from about when Iruka found you" the aged Hokage started.

"Oh, so that's how you knew that I found out"

"Yes, and I heard what you said about being a demon. Naruto, you're not Kyuubi, you're just his vessel, his prison. You're not the demon.

Naruto's face became very solemn and he looked down.

"Oji-san…that's not entirely true. If I wasn't at least partially the Kyuubi, then how could I use its power?"

"Naruto…"

"The Kyuubi's power has flowed through my veins for my entire life. If it wasn't then I would be dead from all the beatings I've taken"

Sarutobi could only nod. He knew that it was because of Kyuubi that Naruto healed so fast and could survive injuries that would kill a normal person.

"But are you saying that all of the beatings you've taken are justified? Do you truly believe that you are the demon that attacked this village 12 years ago?"

"No. I never said that I was the Kyuubi. After all, I existed before it was sealed inside me. Kyuubi lives inside me. He is a part of me. His power is my power. If he was removed, then I would die, wouldn't I?

Sarutobi was shocked. He was desperately trying to think of a counter, something that could prove Naruto wrong, that he wasn't a demon. That Kyuubi wasn't a part of him. But he couldn't. Naruto was right. Kyuubi was a part of him. He was, at least partially, a demon, though not the one that had attacked them over a decade ago.

"I understand…Naruto. Go home and get some sleep, the genin assignment are tomorrow.

As Naruto left his office, the Sandaime picked up some of the papers he was looking over.

'_I thought Kakashi would be the best choice, but after tonight I think a change is in order. Special ANBU or not, this is the best choice for his sensei'_

_End Flashback_

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As Naruto drifted off to sleep he thought;

'_I hope I don't get put with the teme tomorrow'_

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Naruto slowly opened his eyes to find he was no longer in his bed. He wasn't even in his apartment, and, by the look of the room, he wasn't sure if he was in Konoha anymore. He was standing in a giant room of what looked like some kind of temple. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made of some kind of grayish-yellow colored stone or metal. The room seemed to be several hundred feet in length and about a hundred or so feet wide. The ceiling was a few hundred feet up. The odd thing was the walls. They rose about 50 feet, and then angled inward so the room formed a triangle-like shape. He was standing at the back of the room, on a raised section connected to the floor by two ramps that, as he discovered as he walked down one, a steel plate built into the wall that looked like an elongated hexagon that was similar in shape to the room. There were also four white lines going vertically and horizontally in a cross-like shape to a strange kanji or rune in about the lower center (some of you are probably going 0-0 right now). At the other end of the room, he saw another raised platform, only this seemed to be where an alter might be placed. Built into the back of the room, it had stairs reaching all around the ramp that led up to it. As he walked up onto the raised area, he gasped at what was on the back wall.

A giant cage.

It was as huge. Heck, there was no back wall, just a giant cage. Each of the bars were probably a foot thick and about half-way up, in the middle of it, was a piece of paper with the kanji for 'Seal'. As he approached it, a pair of massive red eyes stared back at him. Naruto shuddered slightly as he heard that deep voice sound out again.

"**Hello, warden"**

"I guess that means you're the Kyuubi then, huh?" Naruto answered, not really feeling anything at the moment.

"**Yes, I am the demon sealed within you whelp"**

"Where are we?"

"**Isn't it obvious? We're inside your mind"**

"Okay. Why am I here then?"

"**I brought you here using what little power that accursed seal allows me. I need to tell you something"**

"Okay, shoot"

"**Alright, this is pretty complicated, so I'll try to make it simple. To put things bluntly, the seal seems to have been messing with your body. It was designed to slowly feed a small trickle of my chakra into your body, therefore allowing you to use my power without destroying your body. However, to put it simply, it's putting in just enough to screw up your chakra control and physical growth, but not enough to counteract it. That's why your control is so crappy and why you're so short, though all that ramen probably didn't help either"**

"So what can we do about it?"

"**There is no 'we'. I can't do anything. The damn seal is designed so I can't alter it. Probably made so I couldn't control you somehow"**

"How do I alter the seal? I'm no good at that stuff!"

"**You'll have to find the Shiki Fuujin main seal. You see, the only thing that this cage seals is my mind. My power is sealed elsewhere in your mindscape. You'll have to leave this area and travel around your mindscape until you find it. Don't worry, you'll probably be drawn towards it. Once you do, you should be able to alter the seal to allow more of my chakra to be channeled into your body. That should fix the problem since it can't be cut off completely"**

"Okay, but how do I get out of here?"

"**You see that metal plate at the other end of room? I think that may be the way out"**

"Okay..." Naruto said as he walked back over to the plate. As he approached it though, something weird happened. The white lines and rune suddenly glowed green and a soft 'beep' sounded from it. It then split apart along the lines and slid into the wall revealing another room (now most of you are probably going 0-0 right now).

"Cool! Okay, I'll get going. See yah fuzzy"

Naruto walked through the opening. After he had walked a little ways beyond the opening, it closed again. The room beyond it was just as tall and wide, though not near as long. It had a similar raised platform and another door on it, though it was a good deal bigger then the last one. Naruto approached it and it opened. He gasped at the sight that greeted him.

He walked out onto a large open area. The entire building was in fact a huge tower made of amber colored stone, rising hundreds of feet out of a massive lake (for those of you who haven't figured it out, it's basically the building where the Prophet of Regret holes up in Halo 2(I don't own that either)). Directly in front of him was some mass of platforms that was connected to the building. For some reason, he was drawn towards it, as if that was the way to go. As he walked onto it, he found a large, room like area. In front of a window at the front was a flat mass of blue and green lights about three feet across and one foot long. In its center was a white ring.

Almost instinctively, Naruto placed his hand in the center of the ring. Though his hand should have passed through it, it pressed up against it. The lights glowed and Naruto heard a large booming sound as the platform began moving forward. Running to the back of the platform, he saw that he was on what must be some kind of gondola that was taking him away from the tower. What puzzled him was that there weren't any cables or anything obvious that was holding it up. Then he saw it. A large, blue-green stream of light was coming out of the tower and into the gondola. Looking back to the front again, he saw the beam continued on across the lake to where Naruto assumed he was going.

The gondola wasn't very fast and it looked to be a couple of miles to the shore, so Naruto had some time to observe the area. There was no shoreline along the lakes edge. There was just a massive cliff of rock that rose up out of the water. Around the lake was what looked like a forest and some mountains. What was interesting was that apart from the tower, the gondola and the group of structures that he was heading for, there was no sign of any civilization anywhere.

As the gondola docked with the other side of the lake, Naruto walked off into a complex of structures that were made of similar material to the tower and gondola he just came from. It appeared to be some kind of temple complex. It seemed to cover several acres and was quite impressive. The buildings were mostly empty, however, as he walked onward he found something interesting. As he walked through the complex he found what was probably the center. It was a large temple-like structure, suspended over a large sinkhole by massive struts and was connected to the other buildings via long bridges. It reminded him of the top-half of the Hokage tower (it's basically the building that you finish the Delta Halo level in (you know, where you kill the Honor guards)).

For some reason he was drawn to this structure, more specifically, the roof of the structure, which was a large platform that had something on it that he couldn't quite make out. After walking through the temple, he walked out on the roof and stared at what he saw. It was about thirty feet long and about ten feet tall. The front of it was shaped similar to a dagger and had what looked like place where one could sit. Above this was a shell of glass that looked like it could lower over the seat area like a protective shell. Further back, it widened slightly and had four struts with glowing orbs coming out of it like wings (think a Banshees wings). At the back were tail-like struts (basically imagine a combination of a Banshee, a Hornet and a Sentinel). Drawn towards it, Naruto got into the thing and sat in the small room-like area. Inside was a seat and armrest like areas. As he put his arms on them, his hands fell on two half orbs. By instinct, Naruto squeezed on them slightly. They glowed and the glass shell lowered over him. The object lurched slightly as the orbs on the struts glowed and then, the thing rose into the air. Naruto looked on in awe. _He was flying._ He then felt the drawing feeling again, like he was being drawn to something. He realized that this thing could make traveling a lot easier, as he thought of going forward, the machine started flying forward. After a few minutes of practice, he could easily manipulate the machine. As he flew off toward wherever he was being drawn to, he had a chance to admire the scenery.

An incredible view greeted him on his journey. Vast forests, trackless deserts, great mountains, endless plains, great plateaus and mesas. All he flew over on his journey. What intrigued him was that any signs of civilization were few and far between. The structures he saw from his vantage point were quite strange. Most were solitary towers with great spires (think the tower structures you see in the second level of the first game). Other, rarer ones were immense. At one point he found a great multileveled building built into the side of the waterfall (it's the cartographer from the third game).

Eventually he flew out over a great sea, dotted with several islands. Some had buildings on them, others were barren. Having flown for hours at a speed faster then even the fastest ninja, Naruto realized that this mindscape of his was probably several times bigger then the Elemental Countries! Finally, he noticed land. The coast spread out in a massive circle, and went up into mountains. As he flew over the mountains, he gasped. Inside the crater-like space, the ground went down into a rocky area, then nothing. There was a massive hole in the ground. He couldn't see through it due to an amber colored fog that filled the chasm. Directly in front of him was a towering citadel. Looking to his left and right, he could barely make out identical citadels further along the hole. This led him to think that there were several of these structures around the hole (On the whole, imagine the area from the level "Covenant" from Halo 3 when you get to the Arks center). The citadel itself was made out of a bronze-brass-golden colored metal and gleamed the sun which seemed to be setting.

Curious, Naruto flew down around the structure to get a closer look. As he flew around the back, which stretched out over the chasm, he saw a small beam of blue light about a foot in diameter coming into the structure from out of the fog. It was then that he felt the drawing feeling again. It seemed to be drawing him into the fog, along the beam of light. Not wanting to avoid instinct, Naruto followed the beam. The fog was thick, but not thick enough to impede his vision much. After flying for some time, he realized how big this chasm was. All of the Elemental countries could probably fit inside it. At last, he flew out of the fog, saw his destination and, for about the forth time since coming here, gasped.

It was essentially a floating island that looked like it was a big as the entire Fire Country. And on it, was a structure that Naruto could find only one word to describe. _A Fortress_. Its wall were huge, going along the very edge of the chasm, they went up to a height that must have been four times the height of the Hokage Monument. Past the walls, the main body of the fortress rose up like a mountain. At its lowest point, the outermost part, it wasn't much taller then the wall, but at its center, it was probably _five times_ taller then the wall. As Naruto flew around it to find a landing spot, he noticed where the beams of light were coming from. On the fortress, at a level right above the wall, were nine emitters going around the fortress, each shooting out a small blue beam of light. Naruto surmised that those must connected to the citadels along the rim of the chasm. In the very center of the fortress, there was a hole in the roof, flanked by nine massive struts that went upwards at an angle, then turned ninety degrees and went down slightly. Shooting out of this hole, was the tallest thing Naruto had ever seen.

A great four point spire came out of the hole and towered into the sky. It was easily half again as tall as the fortress itself, which would put it at several _miles_ in height (for a visualization of the whole complex, imagine the Library from Halo 2, only with a much bigger version of the Dreadnought (the Forerunner ship that Truth uses in Halo 3) pointing out of the hole in the middle). Taking his eyes away from the towering mass, Naruto saw a platform on the roof of the fortress close to his position that looked like it could be a landing platform. It rose out of normally slightly slanted roof of the mountain of metal into a raised, level platform. He could also see what looked to be a doorway leading into the fortress from it. As he flew towards it, he noticed something interesting. Painted on the platform was a large emblem. It was a grayish-silver in color, and resembled a gear with 9 spokes with the vertical one pointing into a hole in the center (imagine the 7th Column emblem with two extra points). He touched down on the platform and entered the monolithic structure.

The interior was mainly composed of large, hexagonal-shaped hallways illuminated by dim blue lights from the corners of the floor and ceiling (the area from the control room level of Halo 1). Further in, there were larger, more spacious hallways with walls made of grayish metal (the Library in the level "Sacred Icon" from Halo 2). Though it seemed like a maze, Naruto again seemed to be instinctively drawn down one path. Also, as he walked along, he would occasionally notice more beams of light, no doubt headed for the emitters on the outside. After what seemed like several hours of walking, Naruto found a great chasm, no doubt another defense, he had seen what appeared to be defense turrets dotting the entire complex, and had seen vent-like areas where defenders could be deployed, though he had yet to see any. Also, he had seen many of the odd emblems. Perhaps it was a symbol for this seal? The nine spokes could certainly be a tribute to what it held. However, he would have no trouble getting across the space, for right in front of him, was another gondola (the one you travel on near the end of the level "Quarantine Zone"). Activating it the same way, Naruto easily crossed the chasm.

After a few more hours, he walked though a door, up a ramp onto a snowy plain, and gasped (again). He was on a plain big enough to hold all of Konoha, though most of it was covered by a great mountain. Sitting on top of this mountain, with its four massive leg-like struts running down its flanks, was the great spire he had scene from the air. Looking up, he could see the hole from before. About a third of the way up, near the top, was a massive sphere, built into the spire (for a visualization, imagine the control facility from Halo 2 combined with the Dreadnought only about five or six miles tall). He was almost there. On the mountains sides, each between each of the spires legs, were four long, pyramid-like structures as tall as the Hokage Mountain that jutted out, each with ramps going up them (it's basically the giant pyramid outside the control room in the first game). At the top of the one in front of him, he could make out a massive door.

The trek up was long, but eventually he stood before the door. Unlike the others, this did not open as Naruto approached it. Instead, Naruto slowly pressed his hand on the white rune that dotted all of the doors in this place. As he did, the door rumbled and slid open, revealing a massive, long blue and black hallway that sloped upwards at a gradual angle. After walking up it, Naruto found himself in a massive cavern. Looking around, he could see other entrances directly across from him and on the left and right sides of the cavern, from the other entrances he guessed. In the rooms center was a massive hole in the floor and ceiling (imagine the room in the Library where you start in the said level of Halo 1). As Naruto was contemplating how to move on, he noticed that directly in front of him was a circle cut into the floor. As Naruto stepped into the center of it, it shook slightly and then rose up, drawn by some invisible force. After going through a hole in the ceiling, Naruto was going up a small space at high speed, until eventually he came into a hexagonal-shaped room.

In front of him was a doorway that led into a large room. It was massive (like so many other things in his mindscape). It was long and spacious, and had a long bridge connecting it to a platform at the other end (it's the room where you team up with the Flood at the end of the Covenant level). At the end of the bridge was a ramp made seemingly of light that went up to the platform. As Naruto walked onto the platform, he found another circle in the floor. Standing on it, he traveled downward, but not nearly as far as before. He stopped in a room right in front of a massive door. As the door opened, Naruto gaped. He walked into a room about five times bigger then the Hokage tower, along a seemingly floating walkway made of glass. The sides of the room were massive grooves and the entire room was vaguely hexagonal in shape and had a hole in the middle of the bottom and roof (it's the control room from Halo 1 only a bit bigger). Along the sides of the room were massive struts, folded up against the wall. And in the exact center of the room, floating between the two holes, was a massive blood-red crystal the size of the Hokage tower. Naruto immediately knew what this was. This was the power of Kyuubi. It looked like a double ended diamond with nine sides on each end. Along the walls of the room were four light crimson beams of light that came out and connected to the crystal. Naruto surmised that this was the power that the seal was always drawing from Kyuubi's power in his body. Then all of those other beams must be the power going into my body. So then this fortress must have been the Shiki Fuujin.

As reached the end of the walkway, which extended about half way to the crystal, he found what must have been a control panel. It was like the others he had seen on the gondolas and some doors, though it was much larger and had multiple runes on it. In its center was the gear-like symbol again. Naruto reached out his hand and pressed the symbol. It glowed and immediately, several floating screens popped up in front of him, displaying various bits information. For some reason, Naruto was able to understand it all. He could understand what he was seeing, and understood how to alter the seal. This control panel must have been put in here for this exact reason. He just had to increase the power output into his body. Another plus of this seemed to be that he would be able to handle more of Kyuubi's power faster. Apparently, the default power had been about 0.001 of Kyuubi's power. From what he could see, he'd probably be able to handle all of Kyuubi's power from by the time he was about 40 or 50 years old. With an increase to the power output, this timeframe could be shortened from 40 years, to about 15 to 20. Naruto imputed this into the control panel for a default power increase from 0.001 to 0.05.

The panel glowed as the command was inputted. The emitters on the wall glowed as the new order was carried out. The beams of light widened and turned a darker crimson. The entire facility seemed to change slightly. The beams though out the fortress widened and turned a bit darker as the filtering process of the chakra was hampered slightly. The lights seemed to brighten, and outside the fortress, the energy beams leading to his body widened considerably. But Naruto couldn't see all of this. Naruto looked around as he suddenly felt…_better_. There were no words to describe it. He simply felt _better_, as if his body had become better then it was before. Then something occurred to him. If he was done, then how was he supposed to get out of here? As if on cue, a blue beam of light shone down behind him. Not having any other options, Naruto walked into it, closed his eyes, and then, for a lack of a better term, woke up.

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Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He was back in his apartment, in his bed. And it was mourning.

'_Was all that just a dream?'_

No, it wasn't. He still had that _better_ feeling. Whatever he had done to the seal, it had done what he wanted it to. He got out of bed, his feet strangely hitting the floor before they normally did. Walking into his room, Naruto looked in the mirror and his eyes widened at the sight that greeted him. His hair was wilder, shaggier. His ears were elongated slightly. His whisker marks were wider, more like scars. His canines were longer, almost fangs. And his eyes, though still blue, had slits going down them, like a _fox_. He was also taller by a few inches. Looking down at his hands, he found that his fingernails were now pointed, more like claws then anything else. It was as if he had gone through a Kyuubi-induced growth spurt while he was asleep.

'_**Like the changes kit?"**_

'_Kyuubi, what the heck happened? I look like a completely different person. Did that small increase do that much?"_

'_**Yep. The amount of chakra being induced into your body in roughly the same as the amount you had when you killed the Mizuki guy. You'll find that basically everything about you has been augmented. Your body, your senses, even your mind'**_

Naruto realized that Kyuubi was right. He could see well enough to make out the individual cracks in the mirror. He could clearly hear the birds chirping outside even though he had the window closed. He could feel the individual fibers on his pants. And above everything else, he felt smarter. He could actually form a sentence with word longer then RAMEN! He wasn't as smart as Shikamaru, but he defiantly was smarter then most other people in his class. With that thought, he realized he had to get to the academy. He quickly put on some clothes, though he left top half of the orange jumpsuit, instead opting for a normal black T-shirt. He also put on a henge to mask his new appearance and rushed out the door.

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'_This is amazing!'_

Naruto was flying along faster then he had ever run before. Kyuubi's chakra had made him much faster then before. He also seemed to be unconsciously focusing chakra to his legs so he could run even faster. This puzzled him. In the academy, he hadn't had the chakra control to create a single bunshin, and now he was focusing it without even thinking about it. Kyuubi seemed to sense this and answered his question.

'_**It's another bonus of my power. Your chakra control is so good that trivial stuff like this is so natural, you do it unconsciously. You could probably do that Rasengan like it was second nature'**_

Naruto nodded at this. He had been able to easily do that henge, something he had always had trouble with. He was broken from his musings as he arrived at the academy.

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Naruto walked through the door to the room where the graduates were supposed to gather. He looked over the room, deciding where he was going to sit.

'_Let's see. It's either next to Sasuke-teme or Hinata. If I sit next to Sasuke then I'll to put up with Sakura and Ino fighting over him, and if I sit next to Hinata…is there even _a_ downside to sitting next her? Okay, Hinata it is'_

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Hinata Hyuuga was not exactly happy at the moment. First Naruto-kun wasn't able to pass yesterday, then her father berated her for not being top of the class, then her sister beat her in a sparring match…again. She was broken from her musings when a voice she thought she'd never hear again spoke up beside her.

"Hey Hinata-chan, how's it going?"

Hinata looked up in shock at the boy she secretly loved.

"Na-Naruto-kun! H-how d-did…"

"Hey, Naruto" Shikamaru spoke up from the other side of Hinata. "This is only for people who graduated. Why are you here?" he asked, not arrogant like Sasuke or Kiba, but simply curious.

Smirking, Naruto tapped the forehead protector around his neck.

"Let's just say I did some extra credit work and Iruka-sensei passed me"

"What kind of extra credit exactly?" the lazy Nara asked.

"Well, it we get put on the same team, then maybe I'll tell you" Naruto retorted.

Shikamaru just shrugged at this while Hinata turned a bit red at the thought of being put the on the same team as Naruto while the object of her affection remained blissfully unaware. Meanwhile, the two banshees burst in the door and began the daily struggle for the seat next to Sasuke while everyone else tuned them out. Naruto decided to take a page out of Shikamaru's book and decided to sleep some. Right as he was about to doze off, Iruka calmly strode in, walked up to the teacher's desk and set some papers on it. He then calmly glanced around the room, taking in the students, all oblivious, drew in a deep breath and then…

"SHUT UP!!!!!"

He yelled as his head grew to enormous size, the product of his signature technique; the 'Big Headed Teacher Jutsu'. This immediately sent everyone to their seats and shut their mouths.

"All right. I congratulate all of you on graduating" he began.

Naruto tuned Iruka out as he went into some speech on Konoha or something until the team assignments came up. Naruto tuned most of them out, until.

"Team 7, Sasuke Uchiha…"

Naruto knew that at this point, a good number of girls in the room were probably calling Satan to sell their souls.

"Sakura Haruno…

Apparently Sakura was the first one to reach the Prince of Darkness

"and Kiba Inuzuka, your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake"

Naruto briefly entertained the idea that Kiba had called to get put on that team, but that notion was quickly thrown away as he was beaten up by the rest of Sasuke's fan club.

"Team 8, Shikamaru Nara,"

"Naruto Uzumaki…"

'_Looks like Shikamaru's going to find out my secret after all'_

"and…Hinata Hyuuga, your sensei will be…"

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AN: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! CLIFFY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I know, that's being a bit cruel, but I wanted to give a little more time guessing on his sensei. One of the two longest chapters I've ever written, the other being the latest chapter of "Inner Chaos". As for Naruto's mindscape being Halo, well, it's a mindscape, it can be anything. So why not something really cool? By the way, I was listening to the Halo 2 soundtrack while writing this. Martin O'Donnell is a fricken' GENIUS! And we can all agree on that. I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP. And I just updated "Inner Chaos" too so for those of you who like that one, check it out.

R&R


	3. Author

AN: Okay, I don't like doing there things, but I don't have much of a choice since I need to answer a few questions before my new chapters come out.

Concerning crossovers in "Naruto no Kyuubi". I'm not going to make any out-right crossovers in this fic. I'm just going to keep it to stuff like environments, like the Halo mindscape, or just names. I guess I can label this fic as an extremely mild crossover. Don't expect any characters from any other genre to pop up. I may go a bit further with just what I've done. For example, I may have someone with a sword that looks like Zangetsu, or have someone else with a Halo themed mindscape. Just stuff like that.

Finally, I don't like posting one of these things without providing at least something, so this is the first chapter of an Omake series that I'm putting at the end of the chapters of Naruto no Kyuubi. It's really random, so if you don't like that, don't read it. Also, don't expect the volumes of it in sequential order, I may mix them up some to increase the randomness. So with out further ado, I give you…The Adventures of Hesium.

The Adventures of Hesium Vol. 2

The beast covered in slime gave a roar of despair and crashed right through the left-most wall of the castle and bounded away into the darkness. The men stood dumbstruck as Hesium stared at the gaping hole in the wall. "Whatever you do sir, please don't sue us for the damage…" said Roberts. "I'll say," said Hesium, "these were my best robes and I just washed them yesterday. Now they are splattered with mud!" Fabio then stumbled out of the rubble. "Look! It's Fabio!" one of the servants cried. "Ah! Fabio! Wash my robe" Hesium said. "But sir! He's injured!" Suddenly, Spider-man swung out of nowhere and kicked Fabio against a wall. "DIE FABIO!" He yelled as he pummeled Fabio.

Read and Review Please


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Halo

La la-Normal speaking

'_ni'_-Normal thought

"**????"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**OMG"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter III**

**Teacher**

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Just as Iruka was about to call out their sensei, Naruto's enhanced vision picked up something.

"HIT THE DECK!!!"

Just as the words left Naruto's mouth, everyone dived under the nearest desk as a black object smashed through the window. The object turned out to be a large ball of black fabric which instantly split open and the corners were pinned to the floor and ceiling by kunais. In the center of the fabric were the large white words; "ANKO MITARASHI IS HERE". Said psychopathic jounin was standing in front of it, wearing a grin that many found eerily similar to the one of a certain orange wearing blond.

"Alright maggots! Team 8, I'm your new sensei and..."

"Uh, Anko" Iruka said as he pushed the fabric aside, "you're a little early"

Anko immediately looked a bit embarrassed at her bad timing, however she shrugged it off.

"Ah well, you called 'em out right?"

Iruka nodded.

"Alight, then we don't have a problem! Team 8, follow me!"

Being the first to recover, Shikamaru merely spoke to his new teammates.

"Well, at least we won't be bored"

The genin were in too much shock to object and just obediently followed her to the roof.

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As the genin sat down on the roof of the academy, their sensei eyed them from her perch on the railing (remember, Kakashi's not going to be there for another three or four hours).

"Okay, let's get started with some introductions. I'm Anko Mitarashi. My likes are dango, training, and torturing. My dislikes are a certain snake and some of the more _ungrateful_ people in out fine village" This immediately piqued Naruto's interest. "My goal in life is to find said snake, rip his tong out, hang him with it, draw and quarter him with a rusty kunai and feed him to his own pets!"

It was then she noticed that her new charges were now looking at her like she was a complete psychopath. She put on her trademark grin and scratched the back of her head.

"Uh…sorry about that. I guess I went a little too far. Just forget I said that last part. Let's just say I want to disprove a few misconceptions some villagers have about me. Blondie your next!"

While Hinata and Shikamaru were still a little confused, Naruto knew exactly what she was talking about.

'_I think I'm going to get along with her just fine'_

"Okay, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are ramen, training, and more training. My dislikes are the three minutes it takes to cook ramen and most of the more idiotic and ungrateful people in our village. My dream…" Naruto didn't exactly know what to say. Just yesterday he would have shouted out that he wanted to be Hokage. But now…he wasn't so sure. "My dream is to make this village see just who I am. One way or another"

Shikamaru and Hinata looked at him with shocked faces.

'_What the…? I thought he was going to spout some crap about becoming Hokage like he always does. Something is __**definitely**__ up with him'_

'_Naruto-kun…what happened to you?'_

Meanwhile, Anko was smirking at the boy.

'_Oh yeah kid. We are going to get along just fine'_

"Okay lazy, you're up" Anko said pointing at Shikamaru.

"(sigh)…fine. Name's Shikamaru Nara. I like cloud watching and that's about it. I don't like overly loud or annoying, whiny people. No dreams to speak of"

'_Same lazy shirker as always'_

'_Geez. Lazy as the rest of his clan. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to whip him into shape'_

"Alright white eyes, you're up last"

Hinata was a bit startled by the nickname. Nobody had _ever_ been crazy enough to call a Hyuuga something like _that_. Even so, she began.

"Um…my name is Hinata Hyuuga. My…my likes are…um…training and some other stuff" She said as she stole a quick glance at Naruto, which he missed (or so she thought). "I really don't like that much. I…uh…don't really have a dream" though at this, her cheeks turned slightly red and she glanced at Naruto again.

'_Dense as always Naruto. You've known her for five years and are still oblivious? Troublesome'_

'_Okay. I've got a lazy, but smart as hell Nara, a shy but promising Hyuuga and the village Junchrikki. Well Kakashi, this bet's as good as won'_

_Flashback_

Two hours earlier

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Kakashi and Anko were walking down the halls of the Hokage Tower, having just been assigned their teams.

"I can't believe Hokage-sama would drop Kurenai out for _you_ of all people. I hardly think you're fit to be jounin sensei" Kakashi said lazily with his nose in that perverted book of his.

"Ha! I show you that I can teach any brats they give me. In fact, I'll bet I can make 'em into the most kick-ass genin team since the sanin!" was Anko's boisterous reply making Kakashi raise an eyebrow.

"Okay, how about we _make _it a bet Anko" Kakashi replied.

"I'm listening"

"Alright. If even _one_ of your genin doesn't pass the next chunin exams, you have to ask Gai…" at this Anko began to pale. "…out on a date…" Anko became _very_ pale. "…at the following Jounin meeting" Anko was now as pale as her ex-sensei. This, Kakashi smirked at. Anko however, quickly regained her composure and adopted her trademark sadistic grin that made Kakashi a tad uncomfortable.

"Okay, but if they _all_ pass the exam, you have to give me…" Kakashi began to ponder what she could be talking about, and paled as he chanced a guess. "…every single one of your perverted books…" Kakashi became as pale as Anko had just been. "…for an entire _year_. And you can't buy anymore until the year is up" Kakashi was now as pale as if he were about to have his groin obliterated via Raikiri. This made Anko grin even more. Making the famous (or infamous) Kakashi Hatake squirm like that was _priceless_. But eventually Kakashi regained his composure, though Anko noticed he was holding that book of his a bit tighter then before.

"Okay, you're on"

_End Flashback_

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Anko surveyed her new charges again. It wasn't going to be easy, but she could definitely pull this off.

"Okay gakis. Now that were all acquainted, let's talk about your _real_ genin test"

"We already _took_ the genin test sensei!" Naruto started, but before he could continue, the jounin cut him off.

"That test was only meant to see if you had the skills to become genin. The real test to see whether you're _worthy_ to be ninja is up to us jounin. Your test will be tomorrow morning. Be at Training Area 44 at six a.m. Oh and one more thing. This test has a 66.6 failure rate. Of all of the kids that passed, only about nine will be ninja by tomorrow evening. How about you make sure that you gakis are among them"

The three prospective genin paled at this.

"That's all for today, see you tomorrow"

Hinata and Shikamaru got up and left. Naruto was about to do the same when his sensei spoke up.

"Hey Naruto, I need to talk to you about something"

Naruto turned around to see that Anko had left her perch on the railing and was now standing about five feet away from him.

"What is it Anko-sensei?"

Said jounin looked past him for a moment as if she was checking something. Apparently satisfied she turned her attention back to him.

"Okay, now that the others are gone, how about you drop that henge?"

Naruto's eyes widened at this, though he should've expected this. After all she was a jounin.

"It has something to do with what happened last night doesn't it?" his new sensei began, having adopted a much caring attitude then before.

Naruto's eyes widened further. Anko elaborated.

"Hokage-sama filled me in when he briefed me on this team. In fact, it's _because_ of what happened last night that I'm you're sensei. Don't worry. I don't really give a shit if you happen to look like a demon. I know you're not one, at least not the one we're familiar with"

Naruto calmed down. If she was referring to him like that, then the old man must have told her.

"Okay" he said as he made a seal, and with a poof of smoke the henge was gone, reveling his new features. However, of all the reactions Naruto had expected, this was not one of them.

"Man, that looks badass" Anko whistled, clearly impressed. Naruto just sweatdropped.

"I can see why you had that henge on. If you went around looking like that, there'd be riots all over Konoha. But Hokage-sama didn't tell me about this. What happened last night after you left the tower?"

Naruto smiled a little at this. But there was something else.

"Um…can we talk somewhere else? I'd rather not anyone else hear this"

"Sure" Anko said as she put a hand on his shoulder and they teleported away.

In his office, the Sandaime Hokage looked on through his crystal ball and smiled.

'_I knew that picking her was the right choice'_

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Naruto and Anko reappeared on the top of the Hokage monument.

"So," Anko said as they sat down, "what did happened last night?"

"Well," Naruto began, "it all started when I failed the academy test…"

And so Naruto gave Anko a complete synopsis of what happened from the day before, to right when he got to the academy. He told her everything from learning the Rasengan and killing Mizuki, to the revelation about the truth of the seal and his changes. About five hours later, Anko and Naruto were still sitting on the monument as Naruto finished his narration.

"Wow" Anko said as he finished his story. "You are one hell of a kid Naruto. A mere genin mastering the Rasengan in only a few hours? Even with Kyuubi's help, that is incredible!"

"Yeah, I could hardly believe is either when I first used it. By the way, I think we should tell Ojii-san about this" Naruto said.

"Nah, he's probably been watching us the whole time with that crystal ball of his"

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In his office, the old Hokage sneezed as he looked through the crystal.

'_Okay Anko; let's see if your other idea works'_

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"Naruto, do you know why I was chosen to be your sensei?"

"Well, I guess you aren't exactly very popular among the villagers" was Naruto's reply.

"That's like saying they you're lived an uncomfortable childhood kid"

Naruto began listening intently.

"You know who was my sensei kid?"

"No. Who was it?"

"A guy by the name of Orochimaru. I'm betting you've heard of him?"

At this, Naruto's eyes widened. "The Snake Sanin?"

"Yeah. I was an orphan, like you. Shortly after I became a genin, Orochimaru took me in as his apprentice. He was…great. He treated me like I was his own daughter. He taught me how to be a ninja. I was so happy. Then…" Naruto noticed that Anko's fists became clinched and her face turned to a scowl. "…he betrayed me. A few years after he took me in, he started doing those experiments. He abducted people from the village, genin, chunin, even jounin…and I helped him. I admired him so much…I couldn't even think of going against him. I watched him experiment on people, until they weren't even human, or dead. Then…he started on me"

Anko reached behind her head and pulled down the high collar on her trench coat and motioned for Naruto to look at her neck. As he looked over, he saw a small tattoo on the back of her neck. It looked like three black tomoes in a spiral formation.

"What is that?"

"It's what makes me the most like you. It's called the curse seal. Orochimaru developed it for controlling his servants and making them very powerful. And I was his guinea pig for it"

Naruto's eyes widened again.

"He used _you_? His own apprentice?"

Anko's face became very solemn.

"Yeah. He did. He doesn't care about anyone else in this world. Not even his own subordinates. Everyone is just something to be used to increases his own power. The only person he cares about in this world is himself. After experimenting on me for a while, his secret got out and he fled. But not before wiping my memory. I was found shortly after he fled the village in Ocean Country. Hokage-sama and the ANBU did their best to help me remember, but it was all in vain. All I could remember was his betrayal. And that's not the worst of it. As you know, Orochimaru is hated like the plague now. Everyone knew that I was his apprentice and how loyal I was to him. Now don't get me wrong, the minute I remembered his betrayal, I developed a hatred for him that some consider fanatical. All of the jounin and ANBU knew this and knew I had no more loyalty to him. But most of the rest of the village, especially most of the civilians, weren't as understanding"

Naruto nodded in understanding. He could tell where this was going.

"For several years after, I was ridiculed and hated by the rest of the village. Beatings, shopkeepers denying service, insults, taunts, angry mobs, even a few assassination attempts. You probably know it all to well. That's mainly why I became a special jounin and why I where this mask of sadism. It's because now most are too scared to come after me with anything more then taunts or insults, and even then, I've struck out against even those. But even then, I still get glares and avoidance. And there are also quite a few members of that damned council who want me dead"

Naruto nodded at this. Quite a few members of the council of Konoha had had him marked for assassination since practically the day he was born. The only thing keeping them from having him executed was the old man and the Yondaime's final wish.

"That's why I want to kill Orochimaru. To prove that I'm not loyal to him. To prove that my loyalty to him died the day he betrayed me. That's why Hokage-sama wanted me to be your sensei. He thought that the only one in this village who could understand your pain was me"

Naruto nodded in understanding and gratitude. Understanding to Anko and gratitude to the old man. But there was something else.

"Anko-sensei…I know you haven't told me your life's story to me for no reason. What's the real reason you told me all this?"

Anko smirked at this.

"Heh, your pretty good at reading people kid. Yeah, there is a reason. When Hokage-sama first told me about you, he mentioned the crappy living conditions you've had to put up with. I have a proposition for you. How would you like move in with me? I have a really nice place. And it's a ways out from the village. So what do you say?"

Frankly, Naruto was speechless. She was asking him if he wanted to _move in_ with her? This kind of kindness and caring was completely alien to him. Then he realized that she was waiting for an answer, and he _did_ hate that shitty apartment.

"Sure" he answered with a smile.

Anko adopted a similar grin. "Great! I already talked to Hokage-sama about this so he'll get the paperwork out of the way. So let's go get whatever you want from that apartment and head to my place"

Naruto nodded as Anko put her hand on his shoulder and they 'poofed' to his apartment. Naruto didn't exactly take much. Just some pictures. He was going to take his spare clothes but Anko stopped him.

"We'll get you some new clothes on the way to my place. Don't worry, I know this is all they'll sell you, and I know a few people who'll sell me stuff regardless of who it's for"

Nodding, Naruto put the few things he kept in his pocket and the two left. They later went by a shinobi clothing and weapons store and the shopkeeper, while a little apprehensive at first, sold the two some quality clothes for him.

Naruto's new wardrobe consisted of black shinobi boots with a crimson line going up the left and right side, respectively. They also each had a hidden holster for a kunai. These led into a pair of black ANBU pants with similar crimson lines going from the lines on his boots up along the legs. The pants included quite a few pouches for shinobi equipment. On his torso was a shirt of chain mail over which was a crimson shirt with two black lines going down it (imagine the upper half of his Shippuden outfit only with crimson instead of orange). He also wore black fingerless gloves usually worn by jounin. His headband now had black fabric and hung around his neck. Completing the ensemble was a long, hooded crimson trench coat that went down to just above his boots. It had a large hood that could conceal his face quite well and black flames along the bottom and wisps of black flame going up the rest of the coat. The most curios thing about it Anko thought was the emblem that Naruto asked to be put in the center of the coat's back. It was of a silver gear-like symbol with nine spokes with the uppermost one going into the center. As they left the shop, Naruto answered her question.

"I found it in seal a lot. I think it may be a symbol for the seal. Either way, it looks pretty cool doesn't it?"

Anko nodded. The nine spokes were certainly symbolic.

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Naruto gaped. _This_ was where he was going to be living?! A giant forest filled with Kami knows what? Anko smirked at his surprise.

"Don't worry, I live in a tower in the center. This is where they host the second part of the chunin exams. Training Area 44, also known as the 'Forest of Death'. Don't look like that. I know a way that'll get us through without _much_ trouble" She chuckled at Naruto's grumbling about 'sadistic jounin'

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Naruto whistled at the sight. He could _definitely _get used to living like this. The tower was _huge_. Anko noticed his reaction.

"Impressive isn't it? This is what getting feared gets you. Isolation and everything you need so you won't come out looking for it. Nice huh?"

Naruto nodded. He was definitely going to enjoy living here.

Most of the tower was just empty barracks. Anko's actual rooms were at the top. She still had a pretty big place. The top-most two stories actually.

As they rode the elevator up, Naruto spoke.

"Hey, Anko-sensei, why is this tower here? And why do you have this apartment? I highly doubt it was just put in by Ojii-san"

"Yeah, you're right. This tower was originally built as a special training area for ANBU. But they never used it. So, soon after it was built, Jiraiya, the Gama sanin, and his apprentice moved in and made the forest their personnel training area. They even later built a secret training area under the tower. I spent a lot of time here with those two when I was Orochimaru's apprentice. Most of my training under Orochimaru was spent in this forest"

"You knew the Yondaime?" Naruto asked, a bit shocked.

"Well we were both apprentices of the sanin, so you can imagine that we met quite a few times. After Orochimaru betrayed the village and Minato became the Yondaime, he gave me the apartment that he lived in while training under Jiraiya. The forest started being used in the Chunin exams and I've been living here ever sense"

Anko's apartment consisted of a kitchen, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, an armory with some weapons Naruto had never even _heard_ of before, a study with an impressive library and a den with a large couch and a large flat-screen TV as well as a pretty extensive entertainment center. As they walked down a hall on the second floor of the apartment, Anko suddenly stopped and flipped what appeared to be a light switch of some kind. As she flipped the switch, a rectangular part of the ceiling that had a ladder on it lowered down, revealing a trapdoor at the top.

"What's up there? The attic?" Naruto asked.

"Nope. Your room" Anko answered, pointing up to the trapdoor.

Not sure what to expect, Naruto climbed the ladder and opened to trapdoor to find himself in a medium-sized bedroom that was actually about as big as Naruto's old apartment. It was pretty tall at the back end with a ceiling with a 45 degree slant that Naruto noticed was right beneath the tower's slanted roof. The ceiling also boasted an impressive skylight covering about half of it with a small hatch that would allow someone to climb through. The room also had a desk at one end and the bed at the other with several shelves on the wall next to it and a few drawers under it. Something that Naruto noticed was that there were four switches on the wall next to the bed. Flipping one of them, he found it turned on the lights, obviously. The second caused a large tarp-like object to come over the skylight, blocking the view. After he flipped that switch back, he flipped the third one. This one caused the skylight to slide back onto the rest of the roof. The forth switch did something Naruto was not expecting. Several pieces of the wall flipped around revealing several racks of kunai, shuriken and other ninja tools and weapons.

Naruto let out a low whistle at this. Anko chuckled at his reaction as she climbed through the hole.

"Yeah. Minato always had a thing for weapons. Sorry, no Hirashin kunais though"

"Wait a minute!" Naruto said, shocked, "This was **his** room?!"

"Yep. This is was Minato's room when he was living here. I thought you should have it since…well…"

"He was my father?"

Now it was Anko's turn to gape in shock.

"Wha…H…How did you…?"

"It was a guess really. The first time I saw a picture of him in the old man's office I always thought we looked similar. I guess I kind of entertained the idea that I could be the son of the village's greatest hero. I never told anyone of course. I was already hated enough. I didn't want people thinking I was 'insulting his memory' or anything like that. But when I found out about Kyuubi, it started to make since that I'd be his son. I mean…what better gift could you leave your child then such a power like Kyuubi's?" Naruto answered.

"But…he was the one that cursed you. Shouldn't you at least feel some resentment towards him? I mean, it is kind of his fault you're so hated" Anko said.

"Well…I guess you might think that at first. But if you think about it…the situation he was in wasn't so different then mine. He was the only one that could seal Kyuubi and he would have to seal in someone, so why not his own son? He didn't have any more of a choice then I did. It was the villagers that had a choice. The only people that can be blamed for my treatment by the village, is the village itself" Naruto explained.

Anko was speechless. She thought that he would see Minato like she saw Orochimaru. Someone who had abandoned him with a curse that had made their life miserable. But now that she thought about it, while the curses that they bore were very similar, the conditions under which they were cursed couldn't be more different. With her, a person that she admired and perhaps even loved like a father had used her like a lab rat and left her with a cursed power that could completely destroy her. Naruto on the other hand, was given a power by someone who _was_ family who had probably given him that power to keep him safe. But they did have one other thing in common. In both their cases, the village had a choice on how to treat them. And they chose to hate them. If there was anyone to blame for their misery, it was the village.

"Well…I guess you got a point there" Anko replied.

"Hey Anko-sensei, can you show that secret training area you told me about?"

"Sorry kid but I think it's kind of late for that" she answered pointing at the clock next to the bed. It read 8:45.

"You don't want to be tired if you want to pass tomorrows test right?" she continued as she started to climb down the ladder.

"Yeah I suppose your right" Naruto answered, "see you tomorrow"

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Naruto opened his eyes to find he was in his mindscape, more specifically, on the temple where he had found that aircraft, as he had decided to call it. Speaking of said machine, it was sitting right where he had found it before. This confused him a little.

"What the heck? Didn't I leave that thing on the seal?" he asked to no one in particular. However, something decided to answer.

"Since you woke up here, the craft was returned here" a deep, monotonous voice said.

Spinning around, Naruto found a tall man with black hair who looked to be in about his mid to late forties. He was garbed in all black and wore a long, ragged trench coat that seemed to flutter in a supernatural wind. On his head he wore a pair of red-tinted goggles that disappeared into his hair that also seemed to flutter slightly.

Standing up Naruto looked at the stranger.

"Alright. Who are you and how are you in my mindscape?"

"Isn't it obvious? Who's the only other being in here…warden?" the man answered. Realization and fear dawned on Naruto.

"Ky…Kyuubi? How did you escape?!"

"I did not escape," the man/demon answered. "remember, my actual power is sealed in the central complex. The seal allows my mind to roam your mindscape as long as I enter a human form. The only places off limits are the central complex of course, and that" he continued, pointing at the machine behind Naruto.

"Why not that thing? If the main seal is off limits anyway, then why does it not allow you in that?" Naruto asked.

"Get in and fly upwards. I'll guide you. The seal allows me to communicate with you inside it" Kyuubi answered.

"Okay" Naruto said as he walked over to the craft. Before he got to it however, he turned to Kyuubi.

"Hey, Kyuubi. Is there anyway I can make this thing look any different? Or make into something that goes faster?" he asked.

"Yes. I'd assume you simply concentrate and it'll change. But don't try it on much else in here. Most of the things in here can't be changed. It's how a mindscape works" the demon answered.

Nodding, Naruto turned back to the craft, closed his eyes and concentrated on an appearance that he wanted. When he opened his eyes after a few minutes, he smirked at what stood before him. The craft had changed drastically. It was now black and about thirty feet long and resembled a bird. It had two long wings coming out of its sides to about twenty feet on either side. It stood on four struts/skids that came out of the wings and body. Coming out of the underside of the main body was a ramp that led into the craft (its basically a Longsword fighter, for those of you who don't know, it's the starfighter that the humans use in Halo, and the ship you escape on at the end of the first game). Entering the vehicle, Naruto found it much more spacious then the last one. At the front of the cabin was a chair with a control console in front of several windows for visibility. Next to the chair was a small pedestal that Naruto could think of no use for.

Sitting in the chair, Naruto placed his hands on the familiar control console. As the craft rumbled to life, Naruto looked out one of the windows to see Kyuubi nod to him. As the vehicle lifted off the ground and the struts retracted into its body, Naruto turned it upwards and with a blast from its boosters, was gone in a second. The acceleration knocked Naruto back a little into his seat. This was _a lot_ faster then before. After flying upwards for a while, Naruto stopped the craft, turned it around, and gasped once again at the sheer size of his mindscape.

He had grossly misjudged how big this place was. His mindscape actually seemed to be a giant construct floating in what seemed to be a great black void. From the great hole in the center, nine great petals stretched out like a great flower. Each petal had to be hundreds, no, _thousands_ of kilometers long. Each sloped upwards at the gentle angle until they were roughly at about a 60 degree angle.

"Incredible isn't it?" Naruto looked over to the pedestal to see a mini Kyuubi projected in 3-D in light from it.

"The hole in the center measures ten-thousand miles in diameter. At their widest points, the petals measure 20,000 miles and are seventy-thousand miles in length at their longest points. At its thickest point, around the hole in the center, your mindscape is one-thousand miles thick. The central seal is 2,000 miles across" Kyuubi explained.

Naruto was gaping at these numbers. He hadn't grossly misjudged the size. He had mistaken a mountain for a tree! Kyuubi seemed to sense his shock.

"I know. My reaction was similar when I first learned that. It never ceases to amaze me just how big this place is. You should be proud. To my knowledge, most mindscapes are probably a few miles across at most. This one is over 100,000"

Naruto was still trying to take all of this in when Kyuubi spoke again.

"If you wanted to see what I was referring to before, look to the center"

Remembering what he came up here to do, Naruto looked to his left, towards the center of his mindscape, and gasped once again. Floating high above the hole in the center, was a giant ring slowly rotating, suspended by some invisible force. Only the outside made of some strange metal was visible. On it was and array of strange symbols and carvings

Turing the craft towards the construct, Naruto flew towards it. As he approached, he saw what was on the inside of the ring. Stretching across the ring was a landscape similar to the rest of his mindscape. Great oceans, trackless deserts and rolling plains. Something that puzzled him however as he flew towards it was how the water on the ring was suspended when the inside of the ring was basically perpendicular to the rest of his mindscape. Kyuubi seemed to sense this and answered his question.

"I suspect the ring generates its own gravity. I suggest you be careful when you get close so you don't lose control.

As Naruto flew towards the inside of the ring, he angled the craft upwards, and, true to Kyuubi's suspicions, as soon as he was inside the ring, gravity seemed to shift 90 degrees. Surprised a little, Naruto decided to practice on passing into and out of this gravity field a few times to get his bearings.

As he flew across the landscape on the ring, he spoke bijuu.

"Neh…Kyuubi. Why is this ring here? And why are you not supposed to get here?"

"Well…to put it simply, this ring is a portal to the real world"

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked, more confused than shocked.

"Well, from what I've been able to figure out, this ring serves several purposes. Its main purpose is to allow you to use our youki without entering a demonic form. For example, suppose you wanted to perform a jutsu that consumed a more chakra then you had at the moment and you didn't want to enter your demonic state. If you wanted to do that, then the main seal complex would fire a blast of youki equal to that of what you needed through the large spire. It would travel upward and this ring would project a portal that would allow the youki to be channeled directly right into the jutsu, you follow?" Kyuubi explained.

"Kind of" Naruto answered. "But how does that differ from when I enter that demonic form like when I killed Mizuki?"

Nodding, Kyuubi answered. "When you enter that demon form, the seal channels a massive amount of youki into the mindscape itself. You see, this mindscape represents your body, or the link to your body. That's why a small amount of youki is always being channeled from the seal into the rest of your mindscape. While entering demon form is useful when you want a major power boost, it's not practical if you want to enter it just to perform a specific jutsu. I suspect this is the main reason this ring was added"

"Wait, you said it was the _main_ reason. What are the other things this ring can do?" Naruto asked.

"The other ability of this ring is the main reason I am not allowed near it. It allows you to bring other people into your mindscape, or transfer a blast of purified youki into the chakra coils of another person. As you can imagine, I could probably use that to escape in some form which is why I can't enter that craft. In truth, that's why the main seal is floating in the middle of a giant chasm and the ring is floating 10,000 miles above the surface of your mindscape. It's to signify the barrier keeping me from freedom and my former power. Or at least that's what I think"

Naruto nodded to the demon. Then a something occurred to him.

"Oy, Kyuubi. How do I go back to regular sleep? I going to need to get some rest for Anko-sensei's test tomorrow"

Kyuubi chuckled a little. "This place only exists in your mind. Your body is getting as much rest as you normally would. Also, you have complete control over how much time passes in here in relation to the real world. A day in here can translate to a second in the real world. But to answer your question, just land somewhere and think of returning or something and you will"

Deciding to follow the demon's advice, Naruto quickly found a spot to land on the ring and concentrated on returning to his body. Not two seconds after he started, he promptly woke up.

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_Next Day_

_0558 Hours_

_Outside of Training Field 44 AKA "Forest of Death"_

Shikamaru stood gaping a little in awe and fear at the forest. This place was _huge_!

'This _is where we're taking the exam? Troublesome'_

Taking his mind off of his possibly impending doom, the young Nara looked over to his teammate. Contrary to what some might think, Shikamaru was actually the first to get to the training area at about 5:00 am. Hinata got there about fifteen minutes later. Now where was Naruto? Considering how much effort into becoming a ninja, Shika was expecting him to be the first one there. Now they only had about a minute left and he was still nowhere to be found. Hinata had a look of worry on her face wondering what happened to the boy she loved.

'_Where is he? Something must have happened to him if he's this late. Maybe I should be worried too. If he doesn't show then we'll probably all be failed. Troublesome blondes'_

The shirker's unease and the heiresses worry was suddenly replaced with surprise when they heard something land on the chain-link fence behind them, and then to shock as they saw who it was. Standing on the fence, was Naruto.

This was not the Naruto they knew though. In the place of the hideous orange jumpsuit he had been wearing was something that was practically its polar opposite. Naruto was wearing something akin to a customized ANBU uniform along with a crimson trench coat with black flame designs. His headband now had black fabric instead of blue and was around his neck. His hair also seemed to be wilder looking though Shikamaru attributed that to it not being held back by anything. He was also wearing that same grin he usually did, though it seemed…different, more feral somehow. And were his canines always that long? Whatever changes Naruto went through; Shikamaru could tell they defiantly weren't negative.

Hinata's reaction was similar, though not entirely. She was actually trying desperately not to faint from this. She had always thought Naruto was handsome, it was one of the reasons she was attracted to him. But, like everyone else, she hated that orange jumpsuit. However, unlike everyone else at the academy, Hinata knew that that jumpsuit was all he had. Now however, part of her was wishing he was still wearing that hideous thing. Now he looked so badass she had trouble not fainting. The only thing keeping her conscious was the drive to prove her self-control.

Both were broken from their musings as Naruto jumped to the ground and, not a second later, their sensei appeared in behind Hinata and Shikamaru.

"Yo!"

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The three prospective genin and their prospective sensei stood in a clearing in the forest, the former at one end of the clearing facing the latter at the other end.

"Alright gakis, here's how the test is going to work" Anko began as she pulled three bells out of her ninja pouch.

"Your objective is to each get a bell from me. Whoever gets a bell passes. If you don't get a bell, you get sent back to the academy. You can use anything in your arsenal. Weapons, jutsus, secret techniques, clan techniques, bloodlines, demon powers…"

"What was that last one?" Shikamaru asked, confused.

"Uh…bloodlines?" _'Damn, almost let that one slip'_ Anko answered/thought.

Shikamaru and Hinata still looked confused while Naruto just rolled his eyes in exasperation.

'_Still'_ he thought to himself, _'that's basically an open invitation to use my demon powers. I wonder if she wants to see them first hand?'_

"You have three hours to get the bells" Anko said as she attached the bells to her belt and took out a large timer.

"This timer is set to go off in three hours. If you muck with it, you fail" Anko continued as she placed the timer on a stump at the edge of the clearing and placed her finger on the start button. "You may begin…NOW!" she yelled as she hit the button.

Hinata and Shikamaru leapt into the bushes and trees. Anko watched them with some satisfaction, then she noticed Naruto hadn't moved an inch.

"You're an odd one, you know that?" she said to the blonde.

"No odder then you" he retorted. "Besides, I just wanted to try out my latest jutsu" Naruto continued as he pulled out a kunai.

"Alright" Anko replied as she did the same, "bring it!"

Naruto smirked as he started to step forward…then vanished.

Anko's eyes went wide as she felt something fly past her. She spun around as fast as she could just in time to intercept Naruto and his kunai right before he cut off the bells.

"What the hell was that?" Anko asked, shocked.

Naruto simply smirked and vanished again. Anko looked up to find him on a tree branch high above the ground.

"Wouldn't you like to know" Naruto retorted before vanishing again.

Even though she could barely see him move, Anko could tell he was gone. Probably to find his teammates so they could mount a coordinated assault. This gave her time to muse over that technique.

'_Whatever that thing was, its not like shunshin. It uses pure speed. I could feel him rush past me before. Which means he probably bounced off that tree behind me. That means he can only go in a strait line at high speed. It's not nearly as fast as Hirashin, I could see him, barely. Even so, that speeds probably on par with Gai's. Hell, with enough training with that, he could give Gai a run for his money'_ she broke herself from her musings as she leaped into the trees. After all, just because she was the prey in this test didn't mean she couldn't play the predator.

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AN: Well, what do you think? Sorry about the long update time. Blame Assassin's Creed for being such and awesome game. More Halo references, I know. I'll try to get the next chapter up quicker. Oh, and just because I feel like it, I'm going to put the next TWO volumes of my omake series in this chapter. So without further ado, I give you "The Adventures of Hesium Vol. 3 and 4"

The Adventures of Hesium Vol. 3

Hesium strolled into a room. Roberts and the servants at his left, Spider-man wearing Fabio's head as a necklace at his right. The great beast stood before them. "You! You will pay for messing up my robe!" Hesium yelled pointing at the beast. "You will pay for destroying our castle!" Roberts said. "You will pay for my new car!" Spider-man yelled. The great creature roared. "Attack!" Fabio's head yelled. Roberts's servants pulled out sticks and charged the creature. Roberts himself produced a chair and joined his men. Spider-man pulled out a gun and stuck webs to Fabio's screaming head and used it like a mace. Hesium pulled out his book of scrolls. "Great power of old. That who slew the great cabbage of bobbin, and the mighty trout of Red Lobster. Strike down this heathen swine! Strike him down with your great might, come to me; PARKING METER!" A parking meter then burst through the wall and in to Hesium's outstretched hand. "Now die demon!" He screamed as he charged.

The Adventures of Hesium Vol. 4

The great beast was strong, Hesium had no doubt of that. Already half the servants had been melted by his acid despite the mighty strength of their sticks. Roberts was locked in battle with the beasts left head, his mighty chair bashing against its armor of melon hide, but the melon hide was hardened by years of training, and Roberts mighty Chair of Paperclip had no effect. "Die demon, **Retarded Art, Rain of Tables Jutsu!**" a mass of tables rained down from the sky and bombarded the monster. Spider-man began to spin Fabio around his head. "I'll help!" Fabio's head began to glow brown as Spider-man charged the beast. "**Dance of the Pig, Movement five! Turkey Peck!**" Fabio's head turned into a large turkey and exploded as he struck the creature. "Now to finish this!" Hesium yelled as he raised his great Parking Meter above his head and his book began to glow. "In the name of Bobbin, come forth from your sanctuary, come forth and reap your wrath upon this evil one! Come forth with your great army of might! I call upon you…**Neo George Washington**!" The room began to fade away and was replaced with an icy river, the beast standing on a slab of ice in the center. Suddenly, five boats came out of the icy mist, filled with soldiers and in the center boat, stood George Washington. The general pulled out a sword and pointed it at the beast. Then, about a third of his men leapt from their boats. Skipping across the water at incredible speed, they circled the beast, shooting repeatedly with muskets as they sped around it. The monster howled in pain as it tried in vain to strike its attackers. Then, the soldiers stopped firing and leapt away while another third jumped from their boats. These men landed on the ice slabs in a perfect circle around the beast. They then slammed their right hands on the ice in unison and a large cannon rose out of the ice in front of each of them. The cannons fired at once, striking the monster further. As the smoke cleared, the beast stood, albeit weakly as the last of the soldiers jumped from the boats high into the air. Drawing their rifles, they affixed their bayonets and threw their weapons at the creature like spears, pinning it to the ice. As these soldiers took up position with their comrades, Washington drew the document; 'Common Sense' from his coat. As he unfurled at and placed his hand on it, he began to chant an incantation in an ancient language. The paper began to glow. His men joined in a similar chant. As he continued to chant, Washington pointed his sword to the heavens. Then, the White House fell from the sky and landed on the beast. Washington then threw the sword at the building and it exploded, practically incinerating the monster as the attack faded and reality returned and the creature turned to dust.

Read and Review


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Halo

Melon-Normal speaking

'_stuff'_-Normal thought

"**noodle"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**World Domination!"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter IV**

**The Fox In the Trees**

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'Troublesome' was the only word Shikamaru could use to describe the currant situation he was in. He was in unknown territory, facing an enemy he knew nothing about except that she was far stronger then he was, and he had no way of finding either of his comrades.

'Troublesome' indeed.

He was broken from his musings as he felt a hand grab his shoulder.

Quickly drawing a kunai, the young Nara spun around to confront a possible enemy, only to be met, thankfully, by his teammate.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru asked as he put his kunai away. He was caught off guard by the boy's appearance. He had thought Naruto had adopted something of a feral look when he first saw him earlier, but now that he was up close, he realized Naruto didn't just look feral, he looked outright demonic. Even his eyes were slitted for some reason. He'd have to ask him about that later. For some reason he thought it may have something to do with how he passed the academy test.

"Yeah, it's me. I guess you figured out that we're going to have to work together if we want even a chance at getting those bells" the blonde explained.

"Yeah, but we'll need to find Hinata first. I have a plan, but we need her for it to work" Shikamaru answered.

"Okay, follow me then. I just caught her scent" Naruto said as he jumped into the trees.

'_Scent? What is he? An Inuzuka?'_ was Shikamaru's thoughts as he leapt after his teammate.

"Naruto, you are going to have to explain a few things to me after this is over"

"Yeah, I know"

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After a few minutes the two would-be genin ran into their final teammate.

Naruto and Shikamaru came across Hinata in on a branch about 50 feet off the ground. She seemed to be waiting for them. Not surprising considering her bloodline.

"Naruto-kun, Shikamaru!" she called to them as they approached only for Naruto to seemingly teleport right next to her and cover her mouth.

"Shh! We have to stay quiet or she'll find us" he whispered in her ear.

Normally being this close to the boy she loved would cause her to faint, however the urgency of the situation seemed to allow her more self-control. That and she had just picked up something on the edges of her vision.

"Naruto-kun," she said as Naruto brought his hand away, "Anko-sensei's coming"

"Damn it!" Shikamaru cursed as he landed next to them. "Alright, I'll have to make this quick. Here's the plan. Naruto, I need you to stay here and distract her for a while so I can prepare my Kagemane. Hinata, you and I are going to be hiding close by so we can move in when needed. After I trap Anko-sensei with my jutsu, Hinata, you need to move in and get the bells. You'll only have a few seconds before she breaks the jutsu, so make them count. Any questions?"

Naruto and Hinata shook their heads.

"Okay, Hinata, lets move!" Shikamaru said as the two jumped away as Naruto took out a kunai. As she leapt away, Hinata turned to him.

"Good luck, Naruto-kun"

"Doubt I'll need it, but thanks anyway" the blonde replied with one of his confident smirks.

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Not two seconds after Hinata and Shikamaru jumped into the foliage, a shuriken flew at Naruto which he deflected with his kunai. As he saw the foliage in front of him rustle as something large was passing through it, he started to take a step forward and, just like before, shot forward like a bullet.

However, Anko was expecting this and was able to block his attack as she emerged. Naruto quickly vanished again as Anko strained to see her student. Quickly finding him, she brought her kunai in front of her just in time to deflect him from above.

'_Damn! He's shooting from one tree to the other so he can attack me from any angle'_ she thought as she drew a second kunai and continued to block his high-speed attacks. This continued for about a minute until Anko finally dodged one of Naruto's passes completely and planted her knee into his gut, sending him flying to about where he was originally.

"Come on!" she called out to him. "Stop holding back! Where's the demon that killed Mizuki? I did give you permission remember?"

Standing up, panting, Naruto smirked. "So you want to see **it** huh? You want to experience **it** first hand? Fine" he said as he bent over slightly and spread his fingers so that had a claw-like appearance "You asked for it"

Naruto closed his eyes and sent a mental command to the seal.

'_Activate Demon Form, Ichibi Level, NOW'_

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In the depths of Naruto's soul, at the center of his mindscape, a silent command was given to the system controlling the seal. In the room that held the giant crystal that was Kyuubi's power, the control panel lit up as the command reached it. A great beam of energy shot from the holes in the top and bottom of the room, bathing the crystal in bluish-white light, forcing it to give off more of its power. The beams of light emanating from the crystal turned darker and widened. The larger beam of light itself turned a light crimson from exposure to the radiant power the crystal was giving off. All throughout the great fortress, the beams of energy turned crimson as the systems strained to filter out the worst of the impurities so Naruto's body wouldn't be destroyed. Outside of the fortress, the beams of energy feeding into the rest of Naruto's mindscape widened enormously and turned a light crimson.

Far away, on one of the many terraces of the great building built into the side of a waterfall that Naruto had scene, stood Kyuubi. The great demon turned his head towards the center of the mindscape as he felt the power that was once his released. He noticed the ominous red glow given off from the main seal. Realizing what this meant, the demon placed his hand on the small pedestal in front of him. This building, the Cartographer as it was called, had been put in so Kyuubi could monitor the condition of Naruto's body, and even see through his eyes if need be. Right now, the latter is exactly what Kyuubi wanted. A wide, flat screen was projected in the large space before him, and on the screen, was what Naruto was seeing. As Kyuubi stepped back for a better view, a single thought went through his head.

'_This should be interesting'_

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Outside in the real world, only a few seconds after Naruto send the mental command did he start to feel the effects, and everyone else started to see them.

Hinata was the first to notice a change as she looked on from her hiding spot with her Byakugan. She gasped as she saw Naruto's chakra coils become flooded with some strange chakra. She had seen how his body had changed before, far more then Shikamaru. When she had seen him earlier with her Byakugan, she saw that his chakra stores had nearly tripled and he now had the raw chakra capacity on par with that of a _kage_. She had also noticed that around his navel, his chakra began to swirl in a spiral shape. Also, the chakra in this spiral was red. And now this red chakra was spreading to the rest of his body. And for a second, she thought she saw the spiral chakra take on the shape of a fox's head (Imagine how when Naruto uses Kyuubi's chakra against Neji and he Neji sees Kyuubi). She could tell that this chakra was far more potent then regular chakra, and if it kept spreading like it did, it would probably become visible to the human eye. It soon did.

Anko and Shikamaru eyes' widened as a strange red chakra began to flow out of Naruto's stomach. The chakra spread across his body until it enveloped him completely. It then began to change from a simple aura, to something else. The aura began to take on the shape of a fox. Two fox-ear-like shapes formed on top of the aura, and a single tail formed from behind it. Anko then noticed that Naruto was going through a physical change as well. His ears elongated further, his whisker marks became even more defined, his canines grew even longer, and when he opened his eyes, they were a bloody crimson. (Imagine when he goes into demon form for the first time in Shippuden)

Naruto's lips curled into a dark smile. A twisted, demonic version of his normal smile. This alone caused Anko to hesitate, that and sheer power Naruto was radiating. The killing intent alone was fear inducing. And not just any fear. Primal fear. A fear that strikes into anyone, no matter how powerful they are. It was awe inspiring. Anko was brought back to reality as Naruto brought his left arm up, held it horizontally across his chest, then swiped it sideways. As he did, it created a massive shockwave that blasted across the great branch, knocking Anko back and blinding her momentarily. As she regained her footing, she was sent flying as Naruto burst through the smoke at incredible speed and knocked her back with a swipe of his claw-like hand.

Landing on a tree, Anko quickly leapt away as Naruto tore through said tree. As she flew though the air, she was able to regain her bearings.

'_Damn. That is some killer intent. Maybe I bit off a bit more then I can chew'_

As Naruto flew as her again, Anko hands went through a blur of hand seals.

"**Katon: ****Goukakyuu no jutsu!"** she yelled as she blew a giant fireball from her mouth. Seemingly unfazed by the display of power, Naruto simply charged through it as the fireball exploded, setting the surrounding foliage ablaze. As the flames dissipated, Anko lowered her arm so she could she through, and her eyes widened at what she saw. In the center of the dissipating inferno, stood Naruto, without a scratch on him. Not even his hair was singed.

'_Whoa. Guess that auras not just for show. To stop a Goukakyuu with hardly any effort…that's some shield'_

Anko was broken from her thoughts as a dark chuckle sounded from Naruto.

"So, are you impressed Anko-_sensei_?" Naruto said in what would normally be his normal tone, only twisted and demonic. Even so, that calmed Anko's fears slightly now that she knew that Naruto was still in control and not some raging demon.

Regaining her composure, Anko drew a kunai.

'_As long as I keep my distance, he can't do a thing. I just need to hang back and ware him down'_

As if he heard Anko's thoughts, Naruto smirked in a demonic way as he brought his arm up, and then brought it down in a swipe. As he did however, the chakra on the arm kept going, shooting out like a serpent at incredible speed.

'_Holy shit!!'_ was all Anko could think of as she leaped upward. However, the giant arm then arced upward and _followed_ her, not losing any speed.

As it approached, Anko twisted her body so she moved to the side, narrowly missing the giant claw as it flew past. Just then however, she noticed a flash of red as the edge of her vision. As she turned her head to see it, a single thought went through her head.

'_Crap!'_

She brought her hands in front of her just as a _second_ chakra arm slammed into her, propelling her through several trees, slamming into another large tree about fifty feet away.

As she stood up on the branch, she looked back to where she was before. She saw that the arm she had dodged was now grapping onto a branch higher up and was pulling Naruto up like a high-speed wench. The arm that had punched her was now retracted back into its original state. As he reached the branch she was on, the other arm let go and returned to its regular size as Naruto dropped to the wood below about twenty feet in front of her.

'_Geez, maybe I shouldn't have let him use Kyuubi'_ Anko thought to herself as she placed her back to the tree and brought her thumb up to her mouth. _'Didn't want to use the big guns on a genin, but I need to show him just who he's dealing with'_

Anko opened her mouth and was about to bite down on her thumb when she realized, she couldn't move.

Barely moving her eyes, she glanced down and saw that her shadow looked different then before. Following it, her eyes widened as she saw a smirking Shikamaru kneeling on nearby branch with his hands in a trademark handsign, her shadow fused with his.

"Kagemane no jutsu, success" Shikamaru said as he stood up, forcing her to conform to his same stance.

As Anko tried to break the shadow bind, she heard wood cracking behind her, then, Naruto's giant chakra arms burst from the tree behind her, wrapping around her arms and body, binding her further. She glanced back to Naruto to see his hands pushed into the tree.

Before Anko could do anymore then register this, someone shot out of the brush and landed right in front of her.

It was Hinata.

The young Hyuuga quickly grabbed the three bells from the jounin and quickly tossed two of them to her teammates. Shikamaru quickly caught his and Naruto caught his with his chakra tail as his hands were incapacitated. Hinata then jumped back to a branch opposite of Shikamaru.

"So Anko-sensei," Naruto said with a demonic fox-like smirk, "do we pass?"

Anko could only chuckle at the situation she was in. She had been bested by three genin in under five minutes. Sure one was a Hyuuga, another was a genius and the third a Junchrikki, but still…

"Okay, you pass, now let me go" Anko said.

Nodding, Shikamaru released his shadow and Naruto's claws retracted. Then the aura of charka surrounding Naruto seemingly evaporated as the youki returned to his body, his bell dropped into his open hand as the tail vanished.

As the Hinata and Shikamaru jumped to the branch their teammate and sensei were on, Shikamaru approached Naruto.

"Alright Naruto, now can you tell us what the fuck is up with you?"

Hinata, though not near as forward as Shikamaru merely nodded in agreement. Naruto sighed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Alright. But we should talk about this somewhere else"

"Let's head for the tower. We can talk there and get some food. I don't know about you gakis but I'm starving" Anko put in.

Nodding, the three genin followed Anko as she jumped away towards the tower.

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As the four leaped through the trees towards the tower, Anko turned to the blonde fox-boy.

"Hey Naruto"

"Hm?"

"What was that technique you used back there? The high-speed one. I've never heard of anything like it"

Naruto simply chuckled.

"Well of course you've never heard of it. I only invented it this mourning"

His new teammates looked at him like he had grown a third arm…from his foot…and it was made of popcorn.

"You made it? This mourning?!" Anko said, shocked.

"Well…yeah. It was why I was so late to the meeting. You see, I was jumping through the forest and I realized something. What if, since you only need a little bit of chakra to boost your jump to the next tree, what if you concentrated _a lot_ of chakra to the jump? It took me a while to get it down. So much so that I almost didn't make it to the meeting. The technique is really quite simple. I just concentrate a large amount of chakra to my feet. When I have enough, I release it and well…you saw what happened. I also don't need to necessarily jump to use it. I concentrate the chakra to the soul and toes of my back foot and release it just as I take a step forward, propelling me forward at incredible speed. That's what I did the first time I used it on you. I can even link them together by doing the same with the other foot as it hits the ground at the end of the leap. Now this is by no means a perfect technique. Anyone with good enough eyesight or a doujutsu can see me coming like you did, and I'm guessing you were able to see me too, Hinata?"

"H-Hai"

"Exactly. However, the biggest issue with it isn't if someone can see you, it's how well _you_ can see. Going at that speed, it's pretty difficult to get your bearings on where you're going. Like I said, only those with enhanced vision like me, a doujutsu like Hinata, or trained eyes like yours, can hope to use this jutsu effectively. Plus your body needs to be trained to react in time to stop or attack. I could probably go twice as fast but then I'd just be slamming into trees randomly. My body can only work so fast"

Anko nodded.

"But still, with enough training, we can get your body's reaction time up. I think you should start wearing training weights so the speed your body can react at is increased. Give it some time and enough training, and you'll have something awesome. By the way, have you come up with a name for this thing yet?"

Naruto smirked and immediately stopped on a branch. The others couldn't react fast enough and landed on the next branch and looked back at him in confusion.

Then, Naruto vanished, and reappeared almost instantly next to Hinata.

"Shunpo"

"Flash step, huh? Fits" Anko replied. _'Minato…if only you could see him now. Coming up with such a revolutionary technique in only a few hours… He really is your son'_

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The three new shinobi and sensei rode up the elevator in the tower. Shikamaru and Hinata had been quite impressed at the place and were pretty surprised to find that Naruto was _living_ here now. At Shikamaru's asking, Anko had explained to the two the origins of the tower, but not Naruto's connection to its former tenet. Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru were now sitting in the TV room while Anko got them some drinks from the kitchen.

"Well," Naruto began as Anko brought them some soft drinks and sat down too, "I guess I'd better start from the beginning"

Hinata and Shikamaru began listening intently.

"You both know the story of how the Kyuubi was defeated, right?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru replied "Yondaime killed the demon with a powerful jutsu that caused his own death in the process, saving the village and all its inhabitants"

Nodding, Naruto continued.

"Well, that's only half the story. This is what _really_ happened that night"

Shikamaru's and Hinata's eyes widened at this.

"Minato Namikaze couldn't kill the demon that night. No one could have. Kyuubi was the strongest of all the Bijuu. It was practically a demigod. Therefore, Minato went with a backup. The jutsu he used is called the Shiki Fuujin. It's more of a summoning jutsu then anything else. Using it, the caster calls the Lord of Death himself, Shinigami, to seal away the soul of the caster's enemy inside himself/herself. Directly following this, the Shinigami takes the soul of the caster, throwing both the sealer and the sealed in oblivion. That is the jutsu that Minato used to defeat Kyuubi"

Hinata and Shikamaru were gaping at this. A jutsu that summoned the Lord of Death Himself?!

"But what does any of that have to do with you?" Hinata asked.

Naruto sighed, as if he were composing himself.

"The Shiki Fuujin was designed to target a _human_. It wasn't that the Shinigami couldn't pull the soul out of the Kyuubi, the problem was that Minato's body wouldn't be able to hold Kyuubi even for the few seconds between the jutsu's completion and his death. However, there was one other way. While an adults chakra coils cannot hold such immense power, the undeveloped chakra coils of a child could, more specifically an infant"

While Shikamaru was still confused, Hinata was beginning to understand.

"That night, Minato Namikaze sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi no Kitsune into his newborn son" while Shikamaru's eyes were beginning to widen with understanding and shock, Hinata's seemed like they were beginning to tear up, and were filled with pity and understanding.

"You…" Hinata began.

"Yep" Naruto said with his head held low. "I am Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, container of Kyuubi no Kitsune" Naruto finished.

The four sat like that for several minutes, half trying to digest what they just heard, and the other half waiting for their reaction. Eventually, Shikamaru spoke.

"Whoa. That's…incredible" Shikamaru began. "But…if that's the case, and you are practically the only thing protecting the village from Kyuubi, not to mention the son of it's greatest Hokage, why do the villagers treat you like shit?"

Naruto chuckled humorlessly.

"Well, to answer your first question, their afraid of me. Just because the Kyuubi's locked up inside me, doesn't mean it's dead, even though he's powerless, in their eyes, I'm just the demon preparing its revenge. Some want to avenge Minato by killing me, others think I've been somehow 'tainted' by Kyuubi's power and turned into a demon, many think I'm Kyuubi reincarnated. As for me being Minato's son, that's one of the best kept secrets of the village. Excluding us, you can probably count how many people know this on one hand. The reason for this being that my old man had plenty of enemies, both inside and outside the village"

His two teammates nodded. After all, just mentioning the Yondaime's name in Iwa or Kumo with anything other then absolute hatred was bound to get you a death sentence.

"So what happened those two nights ago? How exactly _did_ you become a genin?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, it all started after I failed the exam. After we were let out of the academy, Mizuki approached me. He told me that if I took the forbidden scroll from the Hokage's tower and learned a jutsu from it, he'd pass me. Being the naïve fool I was, I jumped at it" Naruto began.

Hinata and Shikamaru were both confused and shocked.

'_Why would Mizuki-sensei tell Naruto-kun to do that? And what happened to him anyway?'_ Hinata thought to herself.

"Getting the scroll was rather easy, considering Ojii-san's weakness to my personal jutsu" Naruto smirked at that.

Shikamaru, Anko and Hinata chuckled/giggled at what Naruto was referring to. The wise and powerful Hokage being beaten by nothing more than an academy student using a modified henge was _quite_ amusing (Sarutobi had included that in his explanation to Anko).

"After that, I got into the forest while the old man scent a bunch of shinobi to look for me, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki being two of them. I got to the spot where I was supposed to meet Mizuki and started learning one of the jutsus. About three hours later, I had almost finished learning it. That's when Iruka-sensei found me. He told me that every ninja in the village was looking for me and basically asked me what the hell I was thinking. I told him that Mizuki told me to do it. That's when Mizuki showed up"

Naruto paused and lowered his head. Hinata noticed that his hands were clenched into fists and were almost shaking.

"The bastard had set me up. He'd lied to me. He used me to get the scroll so he could get it from me. That's when he told me about _it_"

"K-Kyuubi?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah" Naruto continued. "He told me I was a demon and that everyone hated me. Even Iruka-sensei. I didn't know what to think. So I did the only thing I could. I ran. I took the scroll and ran away as fast as I could. I found Mizuki-teme and Iruka-sensei a little later. Iruka was hurt and lying against a tree. I think Mizuki-teme hit him in the back with one of his fuma shurikens. He was telling Iruka how much of a demon I was and how I was going to destroy the village. That's when I had an epiphany. I was a demon, just not the one everyone thought I was. Kyuubi's power had flowed through my veins for my entire life, healing my injuries faster then any other human. I was, at least partially, a demon. So then I realized, if Kyuubi's power was my power too, then why not _use_ it? I started to concentrate chakra like Iruka-sensei taught us, and, to every corner of my mind and soul, I yelled at the fox to give me it's power. Not a second later, he answered"

"An-Answered?" Shikamaru stuttered. "You _talked_ to Kyuubi?"

Naruto chuckled.

"Yeah. But hearing his voice was nothing compared to what happened next. All my life, I felt as if I had some power trapped inside me, waiting to be released. I didn't realize this until afterwards though, since I didn't know anything different. But right then and there, that power was released. I can hardly describe what it was like. It was like…well…ultimate power. It was chaotic, unrelenting, untamable. Like no one but me could control it. I could feel my body changing, morphing to better suit the power. I felt like I could do anything. Defeat any enemy, overcome any obstacle, almost like, I was a god. It was incredible to say the least. Then the power settled, and, for the first time, I felt calm. My head was clear. I knew what I had to do. And so, I went forward to face my enemy. I couldn't have arrived at a better time too, because Mizuki's shuriken was about to cut Iruka-sensei in two. I split the weapon with my claws, and faced the teme. As you can imagine, both of them were pretty shocked at how I looked. That and the aura of youki swirling around me. Mizuki recovered quicker then Iruka and claimed that I was the demon and was showing my true face. If you think about, I was in a way. I told him that while I may be a demon, I was also Naruto Uzumaki, and that I'd kill anyone who threatened my friends. The bastard retorted saying that I was just a genin and I couldn't beat him, kinda stupid considering just a second before he was claiming that I was the great and powerful Kyuubi no Kitsune. I just chuckled and prepared the jutsu I had learned"

As he finished, Naruto held out his hand, palm upward, as if he were holding a ball. Shikamaru and Hinata looked at it, curious as to what he was about to do. Their eyes widened as Naruto blue chakra began to swirl around it, creating a raging maelstrom of chakra.

"That's…" Hinata began.

"Yeah…the jutsu I learned was…Rasengan. One of the two signature moves of my father" Naruto said.

He then clenched his hand into a fist and the spiraling orb dissipated into wisps of chakra.

"As you can imagine, Mizuki-teme was pretty shocked at this, Iruka-sensei too. So shocked, that the bastard didn't do anything except stare, until I slammed my Kyuubi-fide Rasengan into his gut anyway. What happened next…wasn't pretty, to say the least. To put it simply, Mizuki…went boom"

"Boom?" Shikamaru said, confused.

"I mean literally…BOOM. All that was left was chunks of bloody pulp splattered around the clearing. I basically reduced Mizuki to a stain on the landscape"

His teammates looked at him in shock (again), with Shikamaru looking like he might vomit at the mental picture Naruto had just painted.

'_Naruto __**killed**__ Mizuki?! What the hell?! Though I guess I can understand. He was trying to kill him and Iruka-sensei. Troublesome'_

Hinata meanwhile was looking at Naruto with a mix of pity, understanding and a little bit of awe.

'_I always knew you were better then everyone else thought Naruto-kun. And now you've finally proven it'_

Naruto spent the next several minutes explaining what had happened since then, though like with Anko; he didn't describe his mindscape.

When his narration was finally complete, Shikamaru was the first to speak.

"Gotta say, that is one hell of a story Naruto. I'm still trying to get a full grasp on all of it"

Hinata just smiled and nodded.

"But," Shikamaru began, "there's one other thing I wanted to ask you"

Naruto and Hinata looked to him with curiosity.

"You never described what this mindscape of yours looked like and I was curios as to what it was like"

Hinata and Anko looked to Naruto and nodded in agreement. Naruto just smirked.

"Well I could…but it'd be a lot easier to just show you"

"Huh?" was the combined reaction to his statement. Naruto gestured for them to come over near him.

"Just place your hand on my shoulder or head and close your eyes"

Too confused to say anything, his teammates complied. Shikamaru put his hand on Naruto's right shoulder, Anko put hers on his left while Hinata put her hand on his head, blushing slightly at the physical contact, and all four closed their eyes.

'_Alright Kyuubi, now what?"_

'_**Just channel a little chakra to where their hands are and think of coming to the mindscape. The chakra should pull their minds in too'**_

'_Okay'_

As small wisps of blue and red chakra coiled around both her hand and the hands of her new friends, Hinata felt like she was falling slightly. As she opened her eyes, she gasped.

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AN: Well, that's chapter four. Yes I did end with a cliffhanger. And yes I gave Naruto Shunpo. This is basically how all crossovers in this fic are going to work. If I do give Naruto a weapon or power form another anime/manga/game, it's going to have justification in Naruto's world. It'll basically be as if Naruto was inspired by the other genre to make that ability or weapon. And as for the sequence inside the mindscape, don't worry I'm not going to include one of those every time Naruto uses demon form. Only when something of special importance is occurring such as entering three-tailed for the first time. I also need some generic Raiton, Fuuton and Doton techniques since those aren't used very much in canon and I can't find any translation sites that will work, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Lastly, to anyone who's been reading "Inner Chaos", sorry but I'm putting it on hiatus. I'm going through some writers block with it plus I have so many ideas for this fic that I'm just going to be working on "Naruto no Kyuubi" for a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to start continuing 'Inner Chaos' by the time I get to chapter 9 or 10 on this fic. Oh and Naruto is NOT getting a Fox summoning contract. That is done WAY too much. Instead I'm going to give him a contract that will be as awesome if not more so. 50 points and a cookie to the one who figures it out.

The Adventures of Hesium Vol. 5

Hesium and the others stood over the pile of dust that was once the vile beast. Suddenly, the wall burst open and three monsters flew through. A great cry was heard. **"Union Artillery Fireballs!"** Five giant flaming cannonballs flew out and incinerated the monsters. Hesium, Roberts, Spiderman and the servants were suddenly bathed in a yellow light as their injuries healed. They looked to the hole that had formed in the wall. Standing in the space were two figures. The first was a tall middle aged man with a short black beard in black armor that resembled a formal suit strangely and a long black cape and a top hat. In his hands was a large smoking Halberd that was pointed where the monsters were. Next to the man was a shorter, elderly man with gray hair and a long gray beard garbed in simple clothes and had a glowing wooden staff in his right hand and large old book in his left. **"Grace of the Hebrew"** the man said as the last of the wounds were healed. "I thank you for your aid, but who are you?" Hesium stated. The taller of the two answered in a commanding voice. "I am Abraham Lincoln, War Wizard of the Melondal Mages Guild and 16th President of the United States of America" The shorter continued; "And I am Moses, hermit of the mountain of Sinai, former leader of the Exodus, writer of the Ten Commandments and wielder of the ancient Tome, The Torah" Hesium nodded; "Understood but…what the hell is the United States of America?" Lincoln shrugged "I don't know. It's just something I made up" "And you are?" Moses said. "I am Hesium, son of Pat the Baker and Mary the Pigeon" Spider-man spoke "And I am Spider-man, rouge of the black forest of staples and slayer of Fabio. I trust that you two are seeking the great Monk as well?" "We are," Lincoln replied, "in that case perhaps we should join forces?" "Indeed" Hesium answered. "Then let us go, the time grows short" Moses spoke up. "Yes. Roberts, you and your men return to the surface. You're far to injured to continue" Hesium spoke. Roberts nodded and he and his men traveled back up the stairs. As he was about to leave, Roberts turned toward his friends. "You never told me who this great monk was. Who is he?" Hesium answered; "The great monk of Kul' Babble…Mahatma Ghandi!"

(my apologizes to anyone who may be offended by my choice of characters)

Read and Review (or I will sick a horde of feral badgers on you (plus a Jedi ferret and Quincy the demon Raccoon (did I mention he's a NINJA?)))


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Halo

Melon-Normal speaking

'_stuff'_-Normal thought

"**noodle"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**World Domination!"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter V**

**Mindwalkers**

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Hinata gasped as she opened her eyes to find she was no longer in Anko's tower. She wasn't in the same position she was in a second ago. Just a second ago, Shikamaru, Anko-sensei and herself were crowded around Naruto-kun each with a hand on him. Now they were all standing next to each other. Naruto-kun was to her left, followed by Shikamaru, then Anko-sensei. The latter two were just opening their eyes and were equally shocked as to where they were. Naruto was merely smirking at their reaction.

Team 8 was currently standing inside a massive room atop a large platform supported by struts from the walls. The room itself was octagonal in shape, with the bottom and ceiling curving upwards and downwards (respectively) into identical holes. As Hinata looked down, she noticed they were standing on a circular piece of glass set in the platform, below which was a large orb that glowed a bluish-white. In front of them was a bridge that led to across to what appeared to be a large door of some kind (it's basically the room where you kill Tartarus in Halo 2). Shikamaru was the first to break the silence.

"Whoa. Now this is something"

"Hai," Hinata agreed.

Anko simply nodded. The three were broken from their stupor when they heard a mechanical click and metal sliding against metal to see Naruto standing in front of the now open door.

"So are you going to stare at this room all day or do you want to see the rest?" he said with a smirk.

Not wanting to be left behind, the three followed their teammate. The four walked into a short hallway that led through an equally large door to find themselves in another spacious room. As they walked through the next door however, they gaped in disbelief and awe at the sight that awaited them.

They walked out onto what seemed to be a balcony on the side of a great cone-like structure (Delta Halo's control room) that rose out of what seemed to be an _ocean_ right next to a peninsula of land (the area around Delta Halo's control room). After coming out of a beach, great cliffs rose up, creating a canyon that led inland. Hinata noticed that, as the cliffs narrowed, a massive metal strut came out of either face pointing towards the opposite face. She was broken from her observations as Shikamaru spoke.

"Uh…guys. Look up"

Glancing over to see that her teammate was looking upwards wide-eyed looking slightly queasy, Hinata and Anko tilted their heads upwards. As they did, they saw land in front of them rise up…and up…and up until it had made a complete circle. Somehow, they were standing on a giant floating ring.

"Uh…Naruto," Anko spoke as she looked over to blonde. "What the fuck?"

Naruto chuckled as he walked over to a small pedestal on the side of the platform.

"It's my mind, it can be whatever it needs to be, though from what I know, this is pushing the limits some" he said as he placed his hand on the pedestal. Suddenly, two thin beams of green light shot from the bottom of the balcony down to a small dock-like structure on the beach.

"So…this place can be whatever you want it to be?" Shikamaru asked.

"Not really. This place was already here when I found it. I can make stuff in this mindscape, but I can't make any real changes to what's already here. This is really more of a manifestation of my personality and mental processes, though the inclusion of Kyuubi probably caused this to be blown way bigger then what it would have been without his power" Naruto answered.

Anko was about to speak up but Hinata interrupted her.

"A place of serene bliss intertwined with a place of great power in the form of something that would be impossible in the real world, representing your kindness, intellect and drive to do what others would think impossible. That's it isn't it?"

Anko and Shikamaru looked at her in shock considering she didn't stutter even once, while Naruto had a look of surprise on his face, which quickly turned to one of agreement and happiness.

"Yep. I thought the same thing when I first came here" he answered as the platform came to a stop at the dock.

As the four followed Naruto off the dock, a gentle sea breeze blew across the beach.

"Wow. This place even has natural weather. If it weren't for the surroundings, I'd say we were in Mizu no Kuni or something" Anko said.

Hinata's attention was drawn to something at the end of the dock.

"Na…Naruto-kun, wh…what is that?"

"Oh that? That's our ride"

The object was a car, but it wasn't like any Hinata had ever seen before. Self-propelled wheeled vehicles were a rarity in the elemental countries. They were hard to make, put out a lot of pollution and as shinobi could travel just as fast on their own, they were only had practical use to civilians. And though regular horses and carts were slower, they were far cheaper and easier to maintain. You'd usually only find them in places like Yuki no Kuni were conditions warranted their use.

This thing was about the size of a large car. It had a massive suspension. The chassis was probably a foot above the wheels which were extremely large and thick. At the front, the hood went in a small arc to provide room for the wheels should they come up and had what looked like a wench under the front along with two headlights. In the center, the body dropped down to provide room for the driver and passenger, however, there was no door, or roof for that matter. The closest thing to a roof was a steel bar going from the windshield, which housed an extra par of lights, to where the back window would normally be. Instead of a door, there was just an opening on either side where one would simply climb in. On the back was a raised area that sported a third pair of lights with two seats covered just two steel bars to act as a roll cage. Except for the bars, the entire vehicle was painted olive green. It looked to be all utility, minimal comfort (if you haven't figured it out yet, it's the transport Warthog from Halo 3 (the one that can carry four marines)).

"Nice car. But wouldn't it be easier to just use chakra enhanced running?" Anko asked.

"Yes, but you can't use chakra in here so this is quicker. By the way, it's called a Warthog" Naruto answered as he jumped into the driver's seat. Hinata rode shotgun, whatever that was, Anko jumped in the seat behind Hinata, Shikamaru behind Naruto.

Naruto started the vehicle and the engine rumbled to life. The sand under the wheels churned slightly as they dug into it and they were off, leaving pair of tracks in the sand. They drove through the canyon for a few minutes, until one side ended and they were driving next to a long beach.

Hinata's eyes were drawn upwards as she heard squawking to see five seagulls flying over the water. Wanting to get a better view of the ocean, she got up and sat on top of the seat (you know, how the passenger always rides in the Warthog).

As she and the others watched the birds, Hinata and Anko noticed fish swimming in the water too.

"So you even included animals? Pretty extensive Naruto" Anko spoke up.

"Yeah, it makes it seem more authentic"

Shikamaru meanwhile was lying back in his seat watching the clouds go by and staring at the other side of the ring. Despite the vertigo he felt when he first saw the rest of Naruto's mindscape, he now thought it had a kind of alien and majestic look to it. The seat he was in was actually quite comfortable and the sound of the waves crashing and air rushing by combined with the low hum of the engine was making him pretty sleepy.

'_Yeah. A nap would be nice. And this seat is pretty comfy'_ Shikamaru thought as he began to doze off.

Unfortunately for him, Naruto noticed this in the rearview mirror. He was about to yell at Shikamaru, but then a much better idea came to mind.

Tapping Hinata's leg to get her attention, Naruto motioned for her to sit down. Not knowing what to expect, she complied. Then, without warning, Naruto threw the wheel to the left and sent the Warthog barreling into the water, causing a large wall of water to fly up onto the vehicle, drenching the occupants and knocking one unlucky Nara from his peaceful pseudo-slumber.

"N-Naruto! What the hell?!" Shikamaru yelled as he pulled some of his now matted hair from his face.

Naruto turned around in his seat with an evil smirk on his face which was only amplified by his new demonic features.

"I'm not letting you falling asleep on this trip lazy! I think it's about time you dropped that shirker attitude of yours. You are a ninja now remember?"

Shikamaru just sighed, muttering about 'troublesome blondes' while Anko cackled and Hinata giggled, forgetting they got soaked too, but they didn't mind. Naruto threw the jeep in reverse and backed out of the water and they were on their way again.

After a few minutes, everyone was dried off from the wind and was watching the landscape pass by. The cliff slowly drew back slightly and the beach ended as they drove onto an upward path. They were soon on the top of the cliff, driving on a dirt path in the middle of rolling fields along the peninsula.

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"Ne, Naruto" Anko spoke up as they drove, getting Naruto's attention.

"Hm?"

"How do you know so much about this place? The only times I can think of that you could have explored this place was last night and the night before. And I don't think a collective of 14 or so hours is enough to learn so much about a place as big and extensive as this. So how did you do it?"

"Well, it works like this. I have complete control of the passage of time in here in realation to the real world when I'm asleep. What could seem like five days in here could translate to just five minutes out there. And when I'm awake and I come in here, all time spent in here is instantaneous in the real world. So basically, when we leave here, no matter how much time we've spent in here, not one second will have passed in the real world. I don't really know all the details of it. Something to do with the instantaneous transfer of information or something. You'd probably have to ask a Yamanaka or someone else that knows a lot about the mind"

Everyone looked at him with looks akin to shock. Before anyone could say anything however, Naruto spoke up.

"Ah, we're almost there"

His three companions looked forward to see the peninsula joining the mainland, however, a small spit of land jutted out to their right where a large building stood, jutting out over the cliff and water below. It was large, though not as large as the building they arrived in. It was shaped like a large A and had a large balcony on the end with something on it, though no one could make out what it was. It was a similar grayish color as the first building. As they drove along the path towards it, Anko noticed what seemed to be a large door on the land side. Most likely where they would drive in. As they approached the door, it glowed and slid open with no visible prompting by Naruto.

The room behind the door was massive. It seemed to be a couple hundred feet long and about a hundred feet high. The walls, floor and ceiling were all in a hexagonal shape. There were also small walls coming off the main ones to form large pockets. Hinata noticed that in these were other vehicles. Some were other Warthogs but some with noticeable differences. Instead of the seats in the back, there was just a platform with what Hinata assumed was some kind of weapon. Some were small towers of metal with a steel plate on the front with three tubes sticking through it (regular Warthog). The other kind still had the small tower, but instead of three tubes and a steel plate, there was just one massive tube (Gauss Warthog). The young Hyuuga was broken from her observations as Naruto drove into an empty pocket and stopped the Warthog.

"Well, this is where we get off. We'll have to walk a ways now"

As the four jumped out of the Warthog and continued to walk down the room, Naruto identified other vehicles.

"Ghost" he said gesturing to a small purple vehicle. It was about eight feet long with a seat on the back along with two small wings coming off the sides of the front. What puzzled Hinata was that there were no obvious wheels on the craft.

"Mongoose" Hinata looked over to see a small, four wheeled vehicle that reminded her of a bicycle with a color scheme similar to the Warthog.

"Specter" Naruto said, pointing to a large purple craft as they walked onward. It was about the size of a Warthog, only it seemed a lot like a Ghost. It was a similar purple color and seemed to have no wheels. Though like the Warthog they had ridden in, it seemed to be able to hold four people. The driver up front in some kind of enclosed cabin, two passengers on either side, and a fourth in the back on another kind of weapon like the other Warthogs.

The last two vehicles were the strangest by far. And the most imposing.

The 'Wraith' as Naruto called it, was something akin to a beetle. It was about twice the length of a Warthog and twice as tall. It had two stubby wings on the front and a large tube with a pair of wing-like fins on the sides coming out of a hole on the top.

The 'Scorpion' was even bigger. It was similarly colored to the Mongoose and Warthog, though it was about two and half times as long and two and a half times taller then the latter. Instead of wheels, it rested on four steel belts in pods on the front and back sides. Hinata couldn't make out any kind of seat but she could see a hatch on the main body where someone could enter. A large tower rose from the back, coming out from which was a very long tube with a smaller tube to the side. The whole thing seemed to be very heavily armored and looked like it could take quite a pounding.

"Hey Naruto" Shikamaru spoke up. "After we're done, you think we could drive some of these?"

"Sure. I'm betting you'll like the Ghost and Mongoose" he said with a smirk.

"Speaking of the Ghost" Anko began. "How exactly do those other three move? I didn't see any wheels on them"

"Anti-gravity generators" Naruto answered as they approached the door at the end.

When everyone looked at him like they were thinking 'WTF?', he elaborated.

"They float about a foot and a half off the ground"

"Oh…WHAT?!"

"Hey, I got a giant floating ring as my mindscape. Like I said, just about anything is possible in here"

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The four walked for about ten minutes through the halls of the structure until they finally came out onto the balcony.

"Uh, Naruto. What is _that_?" Shikamaru said, pointing to the Longsword that was now sitting on the balcony.

"Our next ride of course. The Longsword. It's an aircraft. In other words, yes, I do have flying machines in here" Naruto answered walking up the ramp into the craft.

Unease rising again, his three companions followed him into the craft.

As Naruto sat in the pilot's seat, the others stood behind him, looking out the windows. The craft shook slightly as Naruto started it up. As the craft rose up, Hinata's mind was racing with one thought.

'_I'm flying. I'm actually __**flying**__'_

Naruto guided the craft towards edge of the ring. As he neared it, he angled the Longsword upward.

"You know, maybe you should look a bit closer at what's beyond this ring" Naruto said as they pierced the cloud cover.

As they did, Hinata, Shikamaru and Anko looked out the windows again, and their jaws hit the floor. Spread out below them was the rest of the mindscape in all it's impossibly huge glory.

"Na-Naruto. W-What were we just on?" Anko asked, wide-eyed.

"Oh, just the portal ring. It's what connects my mindscape to the outside world and allowed me to bring you three hear" he said with a carefree smile.

"And…And just how big is this place?" Shikamaru asked.

"Let's see. Including the ring, and the void in the center, the total area of my mindscape would be…6,464,933,614 square miles" he said in a nonchalant tone like it was nothing special, while everyone looked at him like he had grown another appendage made of something random…again.

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As Naruto cruised over the mindscape, he explained some of its functions to his passengers.

"So basically, the structure in the middle of that chasm is where Kyuubi's power is held, and a small portion of it is always being channeled into your body, represented by the rest of the mindscape" Shikamaru said as they cleared the mountains and flew over the great sea.

"For the most part, yeah" Naruto answered.

"So…is that where Kyuubi is held too? I kind of always imagined the seal like it was some big cage where Kyuubi was locked up" Anko asked/stated.

"Not exactly-Oh! Speak of the devil" Naruto said as a familiar (to him at least) hologram appeared on the pedestal next to him.

"I see you brought guests" the fox demon said.

"Yep. Where are you?" Naruto answered.

"I'm on Relic. Look on the base"

"Ah. I see" Naruto said as he saw the island and guided the Longsword towards it.

The island in question seemed nothing bout a large sand-bar rising out of the ocean. In the center was a large structure made out of rust colored metal. At first, Anko thought it may be aged and decaying, but as they got closer, she saw that that's just how it was colored. The structure was long and narrow, extending about half the length of the island but only about a third as wide. At the front was a large spire about a hundred or so feet tall. Behind it was a large platform. It was this platform that Naruto was guiding the Longsword as he prepared to land. As they descended, Shikamaru noticed someone standing on the platform, right in front of, he realized, where they would touch down.

"Hey Naruto, who's that?" he asked, pointing at the figure.

Naruto simply smirked and then replied.

"You'll see" he said.

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Kyuubi stood on the platform, watching the Longsword descend. Even though he was standing right in front of it, he was unfazed as the air rushed past him from its descent thrusters. When he sensed that Naruto had brought his new friends into the mindscape, he was curious. So he hopped in the nearest teleporter and warped to the Relic arena. He wondered just how those three would react to meeting the demon who had nearly destroyed them thirteen years earlier. Well, that Anko women anyway. She was the only one that would have experienced that attack first hand since the other two would have only been months old at most. As the Longsword touched down and the ramp lowered, Kyuubi was broken from his musings as he saw the four standing at the top.

'_This should be interesting'_

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Anko looked at the man in front of them as they descended down the ramp. He was pretty good-looking in her opinion. He looked to be around forty, with an angled, serious face that wore a neutral and serious expression. His eyes were dark and intelligent though they were partially obscured by a pair of red-tinted visors with bands that seemed to disappear in his swirling black hair. His outfit though, was, in her opinion, one of the most badass ever. A tattered black cloak with a crimson interior fell off his shoulders, obscuring his torso and upper legs, and fluttered in a supernatural wind. The only clothing not obscured by it was his black pants and boots. She was broken from her wonderings of how someone other then Naruto was in this mindscape as the man spoke in deep and articulate voice.

"Hello again, Naruto. Nice to see you brought company"

Naruto simply nodded and smiled in return.

"Hey. Who are you? I thought Naruto and that bastard fox were the only ones in here" Anko said, a bit peeved at being ignored. Naruto chuckled while the man rolled his eyes in seeming exasperation.

"Well, there is no one else in here other then me and the so-called 'bastard fox' who, by the way, doesn't exactly like being called a bastard" Naruto said smiling in amusement.

Anko's, Hinata's and Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock, and in Anko's case, fear. Not because of the foxes presence necessarily. If he could do anything, he probably would have already, Anko was afraid because she had just insulted one of the most powerful beings on the planet, to its face.

Not the smartest move.

"You…you're Kyuubi?" Shikamaru stammered. "But…I thought you were sealed away"

Naruto just sighed as he began to explain.

"Like I said before, not necessarily. What's sealed in the center is Kyuubi's, which is technically mine now by the way, power. Kyuubi's mind, while trapped in this mindscape, is free to move around as much as he likes using a human form. He just can't transform into his true form and he can't access the Longsword or any other aircraft in the mindscape"

"Oh…um…so…no hard feelings for me insulting you? Huh? Pleasedontkillme!" Anko stuttered.

Everyone else then had a collective sweatdrop and Kyuubi shook his head in exasperation.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shikamaru's vision blurred slightly as they returned to their bodies. Looking around, he saw they were back in Anko's living room. Well, they hadn't really left in the first place now that he thought about it. Taking his hand off of Naruto's shoulder as the boy stood up, he glanced at a clock next to the TV. Just as Naruto said, not even a few seconds had passed.

"Man that feels weird"

"Oh come on, the transfer isn't that bad" Naruto said, sounding a little hurt by the comment.

"I didn't mean that. It just feels weird having been inside your head for five hours and not having a second pass out here"

"Oh yeah. I guess that does seem kind of weird"

"Well, if we're all done having life-changing revelations and jaw drops, how about we go get some food" Anko said.

"Yeah, we didn't exactly get anything" Shikamaru said.

"Alright. Ichiraku's should be serving their lunch special right about now. We head over there" Naruto said with his usual grin.

That brought a smile to Hinata's face as well. No matter how much he'd changed over the past 48 hours, he was still Naruto.

"Works for me I suppose. I don't really care" Shikamaru said putting his hands in his pockets.

"Fine with me. My favorite dango store is doing some repairs from a fire or something and ramen does sound kind of good" Anko agreed (sort of).

"Okay then, lets get going" Naruto said as they walked to the elevator.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As the four walked out of the forest, Anko glanced at her watch.

"Oh right, I forgot" she then noticed her students looking at her with curious expressions.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up. The jounin who took teams are supposed to report in at 11:00 to give their verdict to Hokage-sama. And those that passed their team need to give an assessment of the teams skill. It won't take very long. See you at Ichiraku's" she explained before waving and 'poofing' away.

Naruto and Shikamaru just shrugged as the three set off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anko appeared in the usual cloud of smoke in the Hokage's office to find Asuma already there. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she noticed it was 11:10. Knowing Kakashi, he probably was finishing up just now. Even though the standard time for the test was 7:00 AM, Kakashi, being the chronically tardy bastard that he was, would usually get there around 10:00. That left an hour for the actual test (not much purpose in that since he always failed the genin), so he should be here soon.

'_Okay. We were __**supposed**__ to start at seven, but he's always three hours late, so that bumps it up to ten. Then one hour for him to test them, plus ten minutes to fail them and then explain why he failed them. That means he'll probably be here soon. No, scratch that. He __**will**__ be here soon. If he's not here in the next five minutes, I'll make sure he's here before five minutes, 30 seconds'_ she thought as she adopted a small sadistic grin.

Fortunately (for Kakashi anyway), the lazy jounin chose that moment to shunshin into the room.

'_Well. Guess I won't have to drag him here. Though that would have been fun. Kukukukuku…"_

"Alright" the aged leader started, "now that we're all here, time to give your verdicts. Kakashi, I assume you gave them the bell test and failed them like you always do"

"Well…yes to first, no to the second"

"Yeah I thought s-WHAT!?" Anko yelled, "Since when do YOU pass a genin team? I thought you always failed them 'cause then you wouldn't have time to read your porn"

"Well…I would have less free time. But I didn't have choice. They did fulfill the requirements. Kiba was actually able to get part of the test and got Sasuke to help him fight me. Sakura got tied to the tree stump and I told the boys to eat the bentos and then told the three of them to try to take the bells again. Kiba gave Sakura his food, so they technically passed"

"The Inuzuka figured it out? I didn't know they were that perceptive" Asuma said, surprised.

"Not really. He thought I wasn't in the area. He just overestimates his own abilities. Though he is brash and doesn't usually think things through, he's got a good sense of teamwork with his partner, Akamaru. And I think he was the only one who really understood the purpose when I explained it.

Sasuke on the other hand, fits the whole "emo avenger" thing perfectly. He hardly cares for teamwork at all. Hell, the only reason he even agreed to work with Kiba was because he dug him out of ground after I buried him with a Doton jutsu. I'm hoping Kiba will be able to counter-balance that. Apart from his teamwork flaws, he's rather skilled for a genin.

Sakura Haruno is the very definition of a fangirl. She fawns over Sasuke every minute and hardly cares for anything else. For all her so-called 'book smarts' at the academy, she's not very bright. I hit her with a genjutsu that showed her Sasuke beaten and bloody with the hopes of stunning her long enough to knock her out, but instead she just fainted at the sight of him. In any event, she'll have to get over her infatuation at some point if she wants to be a competent kunoichi"

"So you got a fool, an avenger and a fangirl. Looks like you got your work cut out for you. Think you can handle it?" Anko said with a smirk.

"No worse then you probably. Besides, from what I heard, you got a bigger fool then Kiba" Kakashi retorted.

"Not anymore he isn't" Anko said, her smirk widening.

Turning towards the Hokage, Anko began her report.

"Team 8 passes. Shikamaru may be lazy but he has potential as an excellent strategist. He may not like putting effort into something, but when pushed, he'll get into action. Hinata has self-esteem and needs some serious back-bone but I think that can be remedied easily enough with Naruto on the team. I wasn't able to test her combat abilities but they were able to see me coming from a considerable distance so her Byakugan must have a good range to it. She's definitely got potential. Makes me wonder how much of a dumbass Hiashi must be for not recognizing it. Naruto…well from what I've seen, I think we may have a second coming of the Yondaime"

Kakashi's and Asuma's eyes widened while the latter's father just smiled.

"This mourning, on his way to the training area, he basically invented a low-powered version of Hirashin" now the elder Sarutobi's eyes did widen.

"He calls it Shunpo. I can explain it later but basically it's a super-powered chakra jump to move at high speed. He was going so fast I could barely keep up with him. If he can perfect it, I think we may have someone faster then even Gai" Kakashi was now _very_ interested. A jutsu that could potentially allow the user to move _that_ fast. Oh Gai would _love_ to hear this. Kukukuku.

"Now if you'll excuse me" Anko said. "I have to meet my team for some after-test lunch. Ja" she said as she 'poofed' away.

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An: Sorry about the long update time. I should be able to make updates faster from now on since I've got most of what's to come already thought out. Now I give you…Hesium: The lost Chapter! (with "One Winged Angel" stupid Spanish version).

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Papas Fritas! _

_Papas Fritas!_

Hesium stood atop the great castle, facing down his mortal enemy. "Your doom is now, my mortal nemesis! You shall not escape again, Joey Wheeler!" he cried as he produced his book of scrolls and summoned the Parking Meter.

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Comer Pescado__ Sabado Domingo_

_Papas Fritas! _

_Papas Fritas!_

"You cannot defeat me Hesium! My retarded accent will always shield me from you, in America!" he retorted in his stupid accent. "That may be, but we are in…FIJI! Your power cannot help you now!"

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Papas Fritas! _

_Papas Fritas!_

"Damn it" was the retards reply. "He is right Wheeler," Abraham Lincoln said from his perch as he drew his shovel. "your time is now" Joey looked from one to the other, then chuckled darkly. "Ha! I don't need America to defeat you, I have …this" he yelled as he drew his weapon.

_El alldo En me caro_

_El alldo En me caro_

Hesium gasped and Lincoln snarled; "You would wield the cursed table of cabbages in this place? What madness has taken you Wheeler?" Joey broke out in insane laughter. "I'm not Joey! I'm MARIK! NOW FEEL MY WRATH, BINKY BOY!" "Well, Hesium, it seems we have no choice" Lincoln said as he brought his shovel to the heavens "BANKAI!"

_Comer Pescado Sabado Domingo_

_Comer Pescado__ Sabado Domingo_

_Papas Fritas!_

_Papas Fritas!_

Power gathered around him as the shovel changed into a small flower. "Save you people from oppression, Mahatma Gandhi!" As the sky darkened and pigs began to rain, Hesium raised his Parking Meter. "I guess I'll follow suit, BANKAI! Scar them all for life, Might Gai Sensei!" the parking meter was now a stuffed action figure of Gai.

_Mucho mucho mucho sal_

_Mucho mucho mucho sal_

_Papas Fritas! _

_Papas Fritas!_

As more pigs rained down, the castle began to crumble from the sheer force of their power and green jello seeped from the cracks. As the great battle began, in the great forests of Alberta, Bob the Hobo was mugged by a rat.

_**Papas Fritas!**_

I hope Sephiroth or Square Enix doesn't come to kill me for that.

Read and Review please.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter II

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Bleach or Halo

Melon-Normal speaking

'_stuff'_-Normal thought

"_Over"_-radio chat

"**noodle"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**World Domination!"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter VI**

**Threshold**

**--**

A dark figure sped across the rooftops of Konoha, pursued by three others.

"_Target is moving east towards the market!"_ a shy, female voice said over a radio.

"_Understood. I'm on it! Be ready lazy!"_ another, enthusiastic male voice replied.

"_Alright alright. I'll be ready, don't worry"_ said another, far less enthusiastic male voice.

The figure ran across the rooftops, intent on evading its pursuers in the crowded market place beyond. Its pursuers, one in particular, were far more swift.

As it was about to leap off the rooftop and into a crowded market, a red and black flash appeared in front of it. Slitted blue eyes stared down at the frightened creature, freezing it in place with a predatory gleam. The blue eyed demon licked its fangs as it smirked, as if preparing for a meal. A clawed hand reached out to grab the creature.

Tora the cat, regaining its ability to think, turned to run from its pursuer, only to find that task impossible as it could not move. A chuckle sounded from the other end of the roof.

"Heh. Easy as pie. Nice work Naruto" Shikamaru said, his hands in the familiar sign, his shadow merged with the cat's.

"Eh. I do what I can" Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head. Oh yeah, clawed hands made good scratchers.

"Um…don't you think that's a little harsh? Scaring the poor thing like that?" Hinata said as she landed on the roof and picked up the cat, Anko sitting in a tree behind her.

"Hey, it's the only thing that works. Besides, you can calm her down in no time" Naruto replied. And it was true, Anko noted. For some reason, whenever the cat was near Hinata, it would calm down instantly without fail. In fact, the animal seemed to like Hinata. At least a lot more then its owner. Naruto had once suggested Hinata might have an affinity for cats, just like he seemed to have one for foxes, only to be reminded by Anko that Hinata was _not_ a junchuuriki.

As the four made their way back to the Hokage tower to complete their mission, Anko smiled in pride at the near-flawless plan Shikamaru had come up with for capturing the feline that seemed to be a never-ceasing source of frustration for other genin teams. Though Naruto had come up with some rather _interesting_ additions to it. The capture plan was simple. Hinata would find Tora with her Byakugan, then Naruto would catch up to it. No matter how much the cat tried, it just couldn't match the speed generated by Naruto's shunpo. At that point, Naruto would paralyze the cat with what he and Anko called a 'Demon stare' which pretty much consisted of Naruto staring down the cat with a sinister glare coupled with a slight amount of killing intent, pretty much he looked like he was a predator that wanted the cat for its next meal. Those few seconds in which the cat was paralyzed in fear would give enough time for Shikamaru to arrive and trap the cat with his Kagemane. Finally, Hinata would perform the actual capture.

Anko smiled. Her team was turning out quite alright. Naruto was progressing incredibly well with Shunpo. He had started wearing weights and doing physical exercises in the mornings to build up his reaction time. This pretty much consisted of him dodging kunai thrown by Anko. They had also been training with controlling more and more of his youki. So far, they had gotten him up to the Nibi mode, but Kyuubi had suggested that they hold off on going further until he had absorbed more youki. And Anko had the sinking suspicion that her sadistic attitude was rubbing off on Naruto.

Shikamaru was also improving greatly, having learned a few of his clan jutsu other then the Kagemane, such as the Kage Nui. Probably his best improvement was the fact he was slowly becoming less lazy. He still had his laid back attitude, but he showed more interest in things other then cloud watching and sleeping.

Hinata was also improving, mostly in her Taijutsu and her Byakugan range. Though training her in Juuyken was difficult for Anko due to certain…complications. Anko scowled at the memory.

_Flashback_

--

It was the day that Anko had passed team 8. Anko and Hinata stood in the main hall of the Hyuuga compound, in front of them was Hiashi Hyuuga, Hinata's father. The two had come here to discuss Hinata's training, sense Anko hardly knew the first thing about Juuyken training.

"Hiashi-sama" Anko said as she bowed.

"Otou-sama" Hinata said as she did the same.

"Why have you come here?" the Hyuuga head asked, venom obvious in his voice. Anko almost scowled. Hiashi was one of those that were less understanding of her situation. In other words, he resented her for the fact that she was Orochimaru's apprentice, and she'd also bet that he resented Naruto as well.

"We've come here to see about Hinata's training in Juuyken, as I am unable to effectively train her in it" Anko said, her head still bowed. It was a simple request, practically obvious. Hinata was a member of the Hyuuga, and since Anko was not, then they would have to work up a schedule so that Hinata could train with her team and be trained in Juuyken.

"No"

"Wait…no? But if we don't come up with a schedule for this then it'll be a lot harder for her to balance training with her team and Juuyken training" Anko said as she looked up, shocked that someone as organized as Hiashi Hyuuga would be against such a thing.

"No. I mean that Hinata will not be trained in Juuyken anymore. You may train her on your own as much as you wish"

"WHAT?!" Anko yelled, instantly on her feet. Hinata's eyes were wide with shock. "But why? She's your daughter, and the heir to the clan if I'm not mistaken. Why not train her in Juuyken?"

"Then you are mistaken. On both your points" Hiashi replied. Anko's eyes widened in shock. "I no longer consider her to be my daughter, if she can be surpassed by not only her little sister, but also a branch family member. She is no longer heir either. You should be thankful Hinata," he said glancing toward his wide eyed daughter. "You will not be banished to the branch family until Hanabi becomes clan head. You should be thankful I have been merciful"

Anko was now seriously resisting the urge to beat the man in front of her to a bloody pulp. Even the curse seal, which was normally quiet unless Orochimaru was around, was pulsing violently in response to her anger. Not only was this man condemning his daughter to pretty much slavery, as well as not even considering her his daughter, he was saying she should be _thankful_? That he was being _merciful_? And he even had the gall, and cruelty, to say it _right in front of her_?

"This meeting is over. I have other, more pressing matters to attend to" Hiashi said as he turned to leave.

'_Good'_ Anko thought. She didn't think she could take any more of this without assaulting the man, which was not something she wanted to do. Going over to Hinata, who seemed to be shivering, she put her hand on her shoulder. Hinata snapped her head around and looked at her sensei, her eyes filled with shock, disbelief and betrayal. A look Anko had seen before. When she had looked in a mirror after Orochimaru's betrayal.

"Let's go. I don't think you have a place here anymore" Anko said, pulling the girl to her feet. What Hiashi had just done to Hinata, was exactly what Orochimaru had done to her. It was right then and there, that Anko had decided something.

Hinata would become strong. Stronger then any Hyuuga before. She would help her surpass her father's expectations. She would make him regret his actions.

_End Flashback_

--

It had taken a few days before Hinata had recovered completely. Naruto and Shikamaru had been about as pissed as Anko had been after hearing this. Hinata was now spending much of her time at the tower with Anko and Naruto. What troubled Anko was that Hinata had not reacted with any real emotional zeal upon hearing Anko's suggestion on her becoming stronger. She had most certainly agreed to it, but it seemed that she was trapped in that shy demeanor. Anko had wondered why, but hadn't been able to press the issue with the Hokage. On another note, while she and Naruto had become good friends, Hinata still had not been able to convey her feelings to Naruto, nor had Naruto noticed them. This had also confused the jounin as to why Naruto could be so dense on that issue when he seemed to be so sharp on so many other subjects. She had asked the Hokage about it, and had gotten an interesting, and chilling, answer.

_Flashback_

--

Anko stood in the Hokage's office, in front of its owner.

"Yes Anko, is there something I can do for you?"

"Well, I was wondering, has anyone ever done a psychological analysis of Naruto? Someone non-biased anyway"

"Why do ask? Has he been showing any abnormalities in his behavior?" the elderly kage asked.

"Not really. It's just his interaction with Hinata that's troubling me"

"Ah. So he still hasn't figured it out yet has he? And you're confused as to how he could be so dense towards her feelings?"

Anko nodded.

"Well, since few years ago, I have had Inoichi Yamanaka do a psychological exam of the boy every year or so to make sure he wasn't going insane from the villagers' treatment. Inoichi would make use of my scrying crystal to monitor Naruto's everyday life and make a report to me about it. About two years ago, when I discovered that Hinata seemed to harbor feelings of affection and perhaps even love towards Naruto, I asked Inoichi to look into this as to why Naruto would be ignorant of this when her behavior was so different from that of his other classmates. He was able to develop a theory explaining it" Sarutobi said, pulling a file from his desk and handing it to Anko. Looking inside it, Anko found that it was one of these reports.

"Apparently, since Naruto has been hated all his life, he has trouble accepting any other feelings towards him"

"He can't accept that people can feel anything other then hatred for him?" Anko said, shocked.

"Not now. You should have seen him a few years ago, before he met Iruka. Right now, he has trouble comprehending or realizing any kind of romantic affection. That's why he sees people like me and Iruka as family members. Inoichi theorized that he can only realize Hinata's feelings for him if she actually comes out and says it to him. And others informing him of this won't work either. She has to pretty much go up to him and tell him she loves him. And based on Inoichi's observations, I believe he may harbor similar feelings towards her, he either hasn't realized them or thinks she may reject him like Sakura has so many times. It truly is a terrible thing the villagers have done to him" Sarutobi said, his face held low as Anko looked over the report.

"I…I understand…Hokage-sama"

The Sandaime nodded.

"I only hope they can realize their feelings for each other. It will make their lives so much better"

_End Flashback_

--

Anko had explained this to Shikamaru, hoping he might have suggestions for getting the two together. He didn't have anything. She had deciding to let things run their course and hopefully, Hinata would build up the courage to confess her feelings.

Anko was broken from her musings when Naruto spoke up.

"Hey Anko-sensei"

"Hm?"

"When are you going to let us do any C-rank missions? We're all tired of these D-ranks"

"What? We've only been doing these for a week. You want a higher mission already? Besides, you pretty much have stuff like this down"

"I know, we can catch this cat easily now. And that's why we want a better mission. It's not a challenge anymore" Naruto said, Shikamaru and Hinata nodding in agreement.

"I don't know…maybe you still need a little more-"

"I'll give you Shunpo lessons"

"DEAL!"

--

Team 8 stood in the mission room, in front of the Hokage.

"So, you think you're ready for a C-rank mission eh?" Sarutobi asked.

"Hai. I believe that my team is ready for a C-rank mission Hokage-sama" Anko replied, the three genin behind her nodding in agreement.

"Very well, come in Idate-san"

--

AN: Sorry for the short chapter. And yes, I'm giving them a different mission then Wave. Remember, Tazuna didn't request the mission until about a month or two after the teams were assigned, and Team 8 has only been doing missions for a week. I know this kind of messes up the timeline, but remember the Tea arc was filler anyway. Read and Review Please.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

Melon-Normal speaking

'_fear my logic!'_-Normal thought

"_hacker"_-radio chat

"**Fire is pretty"**-summon/Bijuu speak, jutsu use

"_**Leeroy Jenkins!"**_-summon/bijuu thought

**Chapter VII**

**Break the Silence**

**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

Team 8 turned to look as the door behind them opened, and their new client stepped through. He looked about 20 years old, and wore average civilian clothing. Nothing out of the ordinary for a client.

"Team 8, this is the man you will be protecting. You are to escort Idate-san here back to his home in the Tea country. After that, the real mission will start. You will receive the details of this upon your arrival from the head of Idate-san's clan, who is the actual client of this mission"

"Expected threats? And mission time?" Anko asked.

"Just bandits and the like. Chances of encountering enemy shinobi are 15 percent at most. As for the mission time, Idate-san has put it at around 7 to 12 days" Sarutobi replied.

"Sounds good. Okay, Team 8, you heard him. Be at the gates at 1300 hours sharp. Pack accordingly"

"Hai sensei" the three said as they turned for the door. Well, Hinata and Shikamaru did anyway, Naruto just jumped to the window and shunpo'd away.

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Naruto was in high spirits as he walked towards the Forest of Death with Hinata and Shikamaru. He knew he could just shunpo there, but he didn't want to become dependant on using it to travel.

One of the odd things about the last week was the fact that he wasn't getting a lot of the glares and sneers he usually got from the villagers. He knew the reason why of course, having gotten a completely new outfit, and the fact that he usually wore his hood up out in public to hide his new demonic features. By this time however, word had gotten around enough so that most people were aware that the 'Demon brat' sported a new look. But even then, having been used to the same hideous orange jumpsuit for several years, and the fact that Naruto's features were usually hidden behind his hood made it so that people still didn't always recognize him. Naruto had known that the glares and general animosity would lessen for a time, then return to normal as people realized it was him in the crimson trench coat. Though looks of fear seemed to become more and more often, something Naruto took a little sadistic pride in.

But Naruto's change in wardrobe and demeanor had caused another change in some peoples' opinion of him. One he had not expected at all.

"Naruto," Shikamaru whispered as he leaned over to Naruto, "One o'clock high"

"Yeah, I see 'em" Naruto replied with exasperation. Well speak of the devil. On top of a building at the one o'clock position, Naruto could just barely make out small bits of hair or a limb sticking out from behind a wall. And Naruto's acute smell could also pick up multiple humans hiding around and behind the trio. All of them female. Over the past week, Naruto had developed a new understanding, and sympathy, for the plight of a certain Uchiha.

"Damn fangirls" Naruto muttered to himself.

In all actuality, while Naruto had considered the possibility of him getting a fanclub thanks to his new badass look and demeanor, he hadn't really expected it. After all, everyone in the village practically avoided him like the plague. Shouldn't that apply to the teenage girls as well?

"Apparently not" as Shikamaru had stated the first time Naruto had been stalked by fangirls. Albeit, the fact of Kyuubi and all of the animosity did result in a much smaller fanclub then say, a certain Uchiha survivor, though they did provide a fair bit of annoyance to Naruto when he was outside of the forest of death. Silently, Naruto profusely thanked Anko once again for letting him move in there.

Thankfully however, it seemed Naruto had taken after his father in his almost foolproof method of evading fangirls. Speed jutsus that no one else knows. Shunpo truly was a blessing, Naruto thought to himself as he turned to his companions.

"Well, I guess I'll see you back at the tower then" he said as he vanished. Shikamaru smirked when he heard the disappointed groans of the multiple girls hidden around them.

Hinata meanwhile was in a cross between annoyance and relief. Annoyance at the fangirls who wouldn't leave Naruto, though also at the fact that she was no longer the only girl to realize Naruto-kun's qualities. His change truly was a mixed blessing. At first she had been a bit terrified that she might lose Naruto to one of those harpies, but Shikamaru had assured her that if she was the only girl that Naruto hung out with, then she had the best chance, or probably only chance as he had put it to reassure her further.

Said Nara sighed as he watched the emotions play out on his teammate's face from the corner of his eye.

''_sigh' We have got to get those two together soon, for Hinata's sake at least. Damn villagers, and Hyuuga's too'_

Maybe this mission would bring new opportunities. If Shikamaru was anything, he was optimistic, no matter how few people knew that.

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Naruto looked around with a small amount of apprehension as Team 8, plus their charge, walked through the main gates of Konoha. It was actually his first time outside of the village so he guessed it was natural for him to feel some at least a little uneasy. He was comforted by the fact that Shikamaru and Hinata seemed to show at least a similar amount of unease.

Hinata… What exactly was it about her? During the academy, he had thought she was just some creepy girl who always seemed to have a fever. Now though…

Ever since Team 8 had been formed-no, ever since his changes, he had felt his attitude towards some of his former classmates change drastically. Shikamaru may have been a lazy bastard, but Naruto now knew that he was smarter then most of their classmates combined. And when the shit hit the fan, he was definitely someone who could watch your back.

He hadn't really seen any of his former classmates save Hinata and Shikamaru since the team assignments. He wasn't sure why, but he just didn't really see a need to interact with them. That and he was pretty sure they didn't even recognize him. And he was pretty sure Hinata and Shikamaru were doing the same. Anko-sensei's training schedule didn't really allow for much free time.

But if there was one of his former classmates that wasn't on his team that he had rethought his attitude towards, it would be a certain pink-haired banshee.

Sakura Haruno… During the academy, he had pursued her affection relentlessly, only to be repeatedly shot down (and often beaten) by the Sasuke-fangirl. During those years, he realized he hadn't really had a reason, other then that she was Sakura, as if that alone justified her worthiness of his affection. But after the incident with Mizuki and his realization of being the heir of Kyuubi, he had been forced to rethink his feelings towards the pink-haired girl. No longer did she seem so amazing and no longer did she seem worth pursuing. Heck, she wasn't even worthy of his attention he had realized. She was loud, annoying, and she pointlessly pursued Sasuke like the banshee-like fangirl she was. Chasing after Sakura had been a plea for attention more than anything else.

Hinata on the other hand… Naruto had to drastically rethink his attitude towards her as well. Whereas before he had thought of her as a creepy, dark girl who seemed to always have a fever, now he saw her in a different light. Her blush was suddenly a blush and not a fever, and it was suddenly cute as well. Her eyes were no longer creepy, but oddly pretty and majestic, like some sort of rare jewel.

His perception of her personality had changed as well. Before, no more than a month ago, he had thought of her as that dark, weird girl. Now, she was shy and timid and peaceful, but strong and graceful at the same time. There was a certain beauty to her as well, like he was staring as an angel every time he looked at her.

He had grown far more sympathetic to her as well, having found out she was not a 'pampered princess' like one might think at first glance at her home, but instead quite the opposite. She was practically just like him. Hated for what she had no control over. In fact, in a way she was even worse off. She had been despised and hated not by complete strangers like Naruto, but by her _own family_. She was in many ways, a kindred spirit to him. And she had taken the realization of his identity not with anger or fear, but with acceptance and sympathy.

He wondered; is this how he should feel? Was this what Sasuke's fangirls had always been preaching that their object of their affection felt towards them? Was he actually… falling in love with Hinata?

He also wondered; could she feel the same way about him? It was true she was kind and sympathetic to his situation, even in a similar one. So, could she feel the same about him? But then… No one had ever seen him like that before. It was true that she was his friend, but could that develop into something more? His thoughts turned back to all the times he was shot down by Sakura, all the times his attempts at gaining her affection, nay, attention. Would Hinata not see him like that? What guarantee was there that she would feel the same way about him? Would she break his heart just like Sakura had?

Deep inside Naruto's mind, Kyuubi shook his head in sympathy. It truly was a terrible thing that the villagers had done to him. He only hoped that this mission could bring new opportunities for his container and the girl he was fast falling in love with. It was true that Kyuubi cared for the girl as well, but that was just because she reminded him of… her.

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The four shinobi and one civilian had been walking for a few hours by this point.

Naruto was chatting with Shikamaru while Hinata and Anko were simply looked around. Their client on the other hand, was walking out in front, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

This was something that had Naruto a bit curious. Idate had hardly said a word this entire trip. He had only spoken when someone had asked him a direct question, and even then the answers were brief and quiet. It was as if he didn't _like_ talking to them.

Shikamaru had noticed this too apparently as he leaned in close to Naruto.

"You might want to watch him. Somehow, I get the feeling he doesn't like us" he whispered.

Naruto simply nodded in agreement. Anko had apparently heard this too and nodded in understanding along with Hinata. Something was up with this guy, and from Anko's drilling, they knew that this could be anything from simply distrust of ninja's in general, to a full-blown planned ambush assassination.

Though Naruto was doubtful that it could be anything to that extreme. His time in Konoha had taught him a lot about reading people, especially reading different levels of animosity. And he could tell that with this guy, it was most likely a good amount of distrust, but nothing beyond that.

Anko on the other hand, was pondering a whole different question. This guy… he looked… familiar. Like she had seen someone like him before. And that name… Idate. She could swear that she had heard that name somewhere. And the way that the guy carried himself spoke volumes too. His upright posture, the lightness of his steps… This guy had obviously had shinobi training at some point in his life, though he was in no way a shinobi.

'_Idate… where have I heard that name before? Wait, didn't Ibiki mention someone like that once? Nah. This guy isn't even from Konoha. Must have been someone else'_

But Naruto and Anko didn't have the opportunity to ponder further as their client suddenly did something neither of them was expecting.

He ran off down the road.

And not just any normal running mind you. He ran off along the road like Kakashi when the latest Icha Icha was released, which in normal terms is really, _really_ fast.

"Uh… Did we miss something?" Shikamaru asked to no one in particular as Hinata and Naruto called for him to stop.

Anko was quick to take charge however as she leapt upwards.

"Come on! We'll catch 'em faster if we use the trees!"

The three genin were quick to respond, leaping up after her into the foliage and taking off at high speed. They soon adjusted into their normal diamond formation that Shikamaru had devised. Naruto out front to use his heightened senses, Anko and Shikamaru on the flanks to provide cover, and Hinata in the rear to watch for pursuers. Anko took a small moment of pride at just how well off her genin were. With many parts of their training, she normally opted to let them come up with most of it themselves, like Shikamaru with his strategies, Naruto with shunpo, and Hinata with Juuyken. She would only step in with suggestions when she felt they were necessary. Anko's philosophy with their training was to have them function without her intervention as much as possible, just like if they were a team in real life. She wouldn't always be there to take care of them or give them suggestions, so the sooner that they could function on their own, the better. Anko knew that with many genin, this would be asking for trouble, but with hers, it was perfect.

"Man, this guy is really moving out there. I didn't think anybody without shinobi training could move like that!" Naruto yelled in pseudo-amazement.

"I'm wondering what the hell this guy's problem is" Shikamaru muttered, "I mean aren't we supposed to be _protecting_ him?"

Anko just chuckled. "A lot of people don't trust shinobi, Shikamaru. Mostly, they're people who live out in rural areas, not around big cities or shinobi villages. They just don't know much about us, except we have some 'supernatural' abilities, so many of them don't trust us"

"You sure sound like an expert on that subject" Shikamaru replied.

"Well, it is more or less the same reason why so many people in Konoha hate me and Naruto, only to a much lesser level. They just fear what they don't understand, that's all"

"Yeah, but I don't think this guy fits that category" Naruto spoke up.

"So you noticed it too?" Anko replied, looking to Shikamaru as both boys nodded.

"Wait, noticed what?" Hinata asked as she moved up between her sensei and teammate.

"Didn't you see something odd about that guy? The way he walked, the way he carried himself?" Naruto asked from up front.

"Um… come to think of it, yeah" Hinata said as she began to realize it, "He was walking with that certain lightness and bounce to his step. Almost like…" her eyes widened as realization dawned on her.

"…he's had shinobi training" Naruto finished for her. "That's gotta be why he can run so fast. He's channeling chakra to his feet to give himself a speed boost"

"That's true, but that isn't exactly a very complex technique for someone with shinobi training. Especially when tree jumping can be done just as fast with half the effort. I think whatever training this guy has had, it wasn't anything beyond genin level" Shikamaru put in.

"Well that's all well and good, but I think we have bigger things to worry about, like catching up to this guy. At this rate, I think he might even outrun us" Anko spoke up.

At the sound of those words Naruto looked back to his team, a wicked smirk on his face.

"Well then, if this guy seems so proud of his speed, I think its time we showed him what he's dealing with eh?"

"Lemme' guess. Shunpo?" Anko replied with a similar look.

"Oh yeah. I'd say this guy's ego needs to be taken down a few pegs"

"By crushing his ego with yours I gather?" Shikamaru said with an amused grin.

Naruto himself just glanced up, assuming a thoughtful look before returning the gaze.

"Yeah. Pretty much"

And with that, he vanished as his foot connected with the next branch.

Shikamaru just shook his head as he felt the sweatdrop. Hinata on the other hand, was blushing at the confident and fox-like grin Naruto had given them, and by proxy, her.

Anko though, was thinking back to the instructions on shunpo Naruto had told her on the way from Konoha…

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Meanwhile, the aforementioned client of the Team 8 was continuing to run at full blast. Idate had trained all his life since fleeing Konoha as a first class runner. A runner that could win the race for his family, the family that had taken him in when he thought he had nothing left.

He didn't need the shinobi protection, and most certainly not shinobi from Konoha. He still didn't know why he had to hire them in the first place. They wouldn't even be able to keep up with him. That's why he had left them in the dust. To show them, and everyone else that he didn't _need_ their protection.

"Hi-ya"

Idate was broken from his train of thought as he grinded to a halt to keep from running into the boy in front of him. A boy that hadn't been their before.

"Wha-What… How did you…?" Idate stammered. He had left this kid and his team in the dust miles back. How did he catch up to him? And where had he come from anyway?

Naruto simply smirked.

"You're not the only fast one around here buddy" he said in a cocky tone as he suddenly vanished.

Glancing around, Idate tried to find where he could have gone, only to find him waving back at him from a tree a least a hundred yards away.

'_He IS fast'_ the man thought in disbelief. He didn't think anyone could move _that_ fast. And he had been a shinobi for Kami's sake.

Naruto suddenly stopped waving and vanished again. Idate wondered what for when the answer hit him. Or rather the tree.

**SMASH**

The collision created a massive rumble through the tree, making Idate wonder if whatever it was had actually gone through the tree.

As the dust settled, Naruto and Idate got a good look at what had hit the tree. And then the latter gaped while the former palmed his face and sweatdropped at the same time. Implanted into the side of the tree, with the usual swirls of confusion/dazedness above her head, was Anko.

Pulling one of her hands from the bark, Anko gave Naruto a thumbs up as a muffled voice came through.

"I'm okay"

She promptly fell out of the tree and onto her back, her eyes swirling in dazedness. Naruto just shook his head as he leapt down to her, noticing that Shikamaru and Hinata had arrived and were looking over her as well.

"What did I tell you before?" Naruto asked in a scolding tone as soon as he knew that Anko could hear him, "You have to make sure you're going in the right direction when you jump. Otherwise you'll just go smashing into things at a hundred kilometers an hour"

"Yeah, yeah" Anko said weakly as she tried to stand, Naruto and Shikamaru moving to help her. As they did, Naruto got under her arm to help support her and Shikamaru did the same, at least tried to. As he moved under her arm, Anko tried to scratch her sore head, pulling her other arm from Naruto's grasp. Unfortunately, she was still quite a bit woozy from the blow to her head and in no real condition to stand. So since Shikamaru was currently trying to get under her arm, physics and gravity kicked in. The result being that Anko did something that would be natural in her condition.

She fell. On Shikamaru.

"Ow" Anko muttered as she tried to clear her head.

"Uh… Anko-sensei" Naruto said, a bit of a chuckle in his voice.

As said purple-haired women looked to him, Naruto pointed to what lay beneath her.

"I think he needs to breath"

For you see, Anko had fallen on Shikamaru face first. Now normally, this might not be a problem. But considering that it was Shikamaru, it was. Because sense Shikamaru was quite a bit _shorter_ then her, his face was currently smashed into her very… ample… chest.

"Oh" Anko quickly got up, quite a bit embarrassed at that while a red-faced Shikamaru sucked in the much-needed air.

"Gah! What is your problem woman?! You almost suffocated me!"

"Ah, but don't you think that was quite an… enjoyable way to be suffocated eh?" she said with a smirk, referring of course to Shikamaru's flushed face, a face obviously not flushed from lack of air. A blush that only got a deeper red at this point.

Naruto and Anko immediately broke out laughing while Hinata giggled a little at their teammates embarrassment, while Shikamaru muttered something about 'crazy perverted senseis'.

Idate on the other hand was recalling what the old man, the closest thing he had to a father in years, had instructed him.

''_sigh' I guess I don't have a choice. He wouldn't like it if I tried to ditch the shinobi he hired. And I guess if they can keep up with me I could use their protection I suppose'_

In the trees above them, malicious eyes watched from under a large bamboo shade hat.

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UHG FINALLY!! You have no idea how frustrating this chapter was to write for some reason. This whole arc is probably only going to cover another chapter or two, and hopefully I'll have the next one up soon. I've decided to start prioritizing Naruto no Kyuubi as a fic to concentrate on. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to stop working on my other three prioritized works (KOTH, Knightfall, Roku Naruto). Expect more soon.

Read and Review please.


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